Reasons to be a Medic
by Sasukitty
Summary: Sasuke makes the decision to become a medical ninja. This is his life as a medical ninja, following the original Naruto plot but with new decisions and new lessons to learn along the way. Good Team 7 dynamics and eventual narusasu.
1. Prologue

As someone who is obsessed with making Sasuke a medical ninja I am disappointed in the lack of fanfiction I can find… seriously.

This story is Sasuke-centric, although other characters perspectives might appear sometimes the majority of each chapter will be focused on Sasuke. If things happen in canon that I don't mention, assume that it still happened in the background but Sasuke didn't notice it happen. My Sasuke isn't always particularly observant or caring about what other people are doing... at least until later in the story.

This first chapter doesn't have a lot of dialogue, I suppose it's more like a prologue of Sasuke's life from age 7 to graduation. It will be more like a real story from the next chapter.

I do not have a beta so there are probably mistakes. I will do my best to amend them.

-Insert Disclaimer Here-

*I've added more dialogue to this chapter and made edits but the story line hasn't been changed at all.

* * *

Once upon a time, in Konoha, the NINJA Village of the Hidden Leaves. There appeared a nine-tailed demon fox. Its mighty tails could crumble mountains and even cause a tsunami.

The ninja of Konoha, also known as Konoha's shinobi, assembled to fight the demon and many shinobi lost their lives.

One man was able to seal the demon inside a new-born baby called Naruto, but in the process he lost his life.

This man was known as the 4th Hokage.

Many years later a great crisis happened within one of the clans of Konoha.

...

This crisis was caused by a thirteen-year-old ninja named Uchiha Itachi. Who in one night murdered his entire family and the entire Uchiha clan leaving only his seven-year-old brother alive. This seven-year old's name was Uchiha Sasuke.

Itachi tormented his brother Sasuke with illusionary genjutsu, forcing him to re-watch their parent's death over and over again.

When asked why he murdered his clan he simply replied, 'to test his own power.'

Sasuke attempted to fight back but failed and was told he wasn't even worth killing. However, before Itachi left he encouraged Sasuke to cling to life, cling to hatred, desire power and revenge and someday become strong enough to kill him.

Sasuke's attempted to fight back once again, even activating the clan's signature ability the Sharingan, but he failed in his attempt and passed out.

….

Upon waking up in the hospital Sasuke found himself alone.

He was the last surviving Uchiha. Completely alone.

He looked around the hospital room as nurses and doctors bustled around. The doctors that came to check on him avoided eye contact and gave him looks full of pity.

Sasuke ignored them, Itachi's words weighed heavily on his mind and he found himself lost in his own thoughts.

' _I don't want to do what he told me… he killed them. He killed them all… and Father once said... He told me not to follow in Itachi's footsteps… but is this why? Itachi was always the clan favourite, a prodigy who became part of the elite ANBU shinobi at 11 years old… I thought they wanted me to be like him but now... Itachi told me to cling to life, to seek vengeance, but… I felt so weak, I never want to feel that way again. They all died, I couldn't save them, I couldn't even protect them.'_

Loud footsteps outside his room interrupted his constantly spiraling thoughts. A few doctors rushed past wheeling a stretcher down the hall.

' _huh...'_

He stared blankly ahead in the hospital for what seemed like days, simply watching the doctors rush in and out, he slowly came to realise something. Perhaps there was another way he could protect those he cared about without being consumed by hatred of his brother.

The doctors and medical-ninja in the hospital seemed to be busy even at 4am… They were always moving, constantly saving lives…

Sasuke watched the medical ninja cart another injured man into his room and heal him, the man that was close to death left an hour later looking healthy again.

He made a decision.

 _'I cannot do as you said Itachi. Someday I will kill you but… at least until then I will make it so I never lose someone I care about. I will not kill my best friend. I will not gain power in the way you wanted me to. There is more than one way to be strong… I never want to see someone I care about die in front of me again, the feeling of powerlessness was overwhelming and I never again want to feel so weak.'_

He took a deep breath. And fell asleep feeling better. Despite the nightmares that plagued him, he now had a goal to work towards and so the next day he discharged himself from the hospital.

It took him a while to get back on his feet, the 3rd Hokage, who was the leader of the village of Konoha, wouldn't let him go back to the Uchiha District. So, he was given a house in the middle of the village.

The Hokage paid the rent and gave him money for food every now and then until he could earn money himself. He supposed that would be when he graduated the academy and became a Genin.

It was the lowest level of ninja, but a ninja nonetheless.

He spent the first few weeks after the massacre wandering his family's compound, reflecting on the people who were now gone... Killed by Itachi.

He attempted to go back to the academy but the Hokage and teachers insisted that he take time off to rest. They claimed that he shouldn't push himself… That they were worried about Sasuke's well-being after what happened...

 _'But I don't want to rest, I want to learn_ ' Sasuke thought spitefully. He didn't need the old man's help anyway…

For the first few weeks he wandered around the libraries in Konoha and scoured the books in the medical sections. He took out as many books as he was able, and read every day. It was more of a distraction from his memories than anything else but it worked well and he did his best to focus on the difficult texts in front of him.

Some of the books he didn't understand at all, but he found a large book on anatomy of the body with detailed pictures and he tended to skim over words he didn't understand. Although, he found a dictionary did help for some words… being a medical ninja was turning out to be much harder than he thought.

Finally, he returned to the academy.

It was mostly due to the Hokage, who was insisting that he needed to make friends his age so he wouldn't be socially inept Sasuke scoffed, first they wanted him to take time off and now they wanted him to make friends... It didn't turn out as bad as he thought, he threw himself into his studies at the Academy, making no effort to form friendships and ignoring all the fangirls trying to talk to him.

He found himself trusting people a lot less these days. And most days he didn't feel like speaking to anyone at all. He spent most lessons reading medicine or biology related books rather than paying attention, but despite that, his grades stayed in the top level of the class. Although, he didn't have the highest grades, as the pink haired girl was always ahead of him when it came to written tests.

It was a surprise however, a few months into his reading when he found a book on chakra control.

Of course, he knew that chakra was a part of everyone and it was what made a ninja able to do ninjutsu. But he had always thought chakra was just something people did naturally, discovering that he could put too much or too little chakra into his ninjutsu was something he spent many weeks testing, sometimes just to see what happened.

When the time for the ninja academy holidays came around he began to practice more.

He had read that, as a medical ninja, he needed to have perfect chakra control and after many weeks of practice and analysis of the book he was reading he found that he was always using too much.

It took him a long time to practice manipulating the correct amount he needed for each technique. When he practiced the techniques he knew, he did his best to use exactly the right amount of chakra. It did make mastering the techniques a lot slower as most of his chakra control was trial and error, but he wanted to be the best and he didn't know of any other ways.

He found his chakra reserves were high already but he needed to practice using as much chakra as he wanted. It was difficult but he was beginning to understand ninja techniques more. He took a little bit of time each day to meditate and practice chakra control.

When he wasn't training, Sasuke spent a lot of his time gardening in the Uchiha district, although he didn't live there anymore he planted lots of herbs for medicine. He practiced making medicines based on what his books said but never really tried using them unless he was absolutely sure they were made right.

One day, he was out picking flowers and plants around Konoha when he ran into a young girl who seemed to be doing the same thing. He recognised her from his class but he had never spoken to her. She looked away shyly when he approached, but she had a large flower press with her and seemed to be making her own kind of medicine.

"What are you doing" he asked. She looked shocked that she was being spoken too and stuttered out a response he couldn't hear.

"Is that medicine?" he asked, trying again. She nodded mutely.

"Can you show me how to make it?" he asked. She seemed to almost pass out in shock.

Once she came back to herself again, Sasuke learned that her name was Hyuuga Hinata and the ointment she was making was special to the Hyuuga clan.

Thankfully, she seemed happy to show him how to make it. Although it was a Hyuuga ointment it was used a lot in the hospitals because it was infused with chakra. So, it helped wounds and scratches heal faster. They spent a lot of time picking flowers together, making medicines and he showed her the plants he was growing in the Uchiha district.

However, as time went by she started picking flowers less and less and he only really saw her in class. She said that important things were happening in her clan, but she would see him when she had chance.

Sasuke wasn't that bothered, he simply threw himself into his studies once more.

Then a year had passed and the anniversary of his family's death came. Until this point, he'd managed to distract himself from the memories of THAT NIGHT. But, the closer the anniversary date came, the more he dwelled on what could have been. He spent many nights waking up screaming from the nightmares. In the end, he stayed up all night for as many days as he could, practicing until he fell asleep from exhaustion.

He knew this wasn't particularly healthy, and some days he was too tired to stay awake in class. Some of the teachers would look at him and their eyes were full of pity.

He hated it.

They called him 'the last Uchiha.' As if his brother no longer existed, as if he wasn't out there right now… but, no one bothered him. And as the year, went on he continued his quiet life rather happily. None of the kids in class bothered him that much. Other than the fangirls.

And then it was a full two years since he'd began his reading. At the age of 9, he finally finished all the books he could find in the libraries of Konoha and understood as much as he could. Which admittedly wasn't as much as he wanted, there were still many words that he didn't really understand and he usually spent a lot of time looking them up in a dictionary.

He decided to get adult help. He had been reading books and practicing chakra control and other small techniques any chance he could get for the past two years, but most books made it sound like he was too young to do anything more than that.

And that really annoyed him!

Yes, he needed someone's help. The only problem was, Sasuke didn't know many adults. Nor did he really want to ask for someone's help… He decided the best idea would be to go to Iruka-Sensei. A teacher with a scar across his nose and brown hair that taught him most the time.

He would simply... ask for advice. He knew that teachers had to have knowledge of lots of things so, he figured that Iruka-Sensei could at least point him in the right direction. And as a teacher he knew he was more trustworthy than anyone else he could think of.

It was with this in mind that Sasuke approached him after all the other students had ran out of the room already.

"Iruka-Sensei, may I speak to you?" he asked standing next to the teacher's desk. Iruka turned around from wiping off the blackboard, he was slightly surprised to see Sasuke standing there.

"What can I help you with Sasuke-kun?" he said sitting down in his chair. Sasuke realised he hadn't really thought through what he wanted to say and shifted his feet a little, thinking.

"Umm… well, I was wondering if you could help me…" he paused thinking of the best way to phrase his question, "I want to become a medical ninja… but… well, I've read all the books I can find and I don't really know what to do… now…" he said delicately glancing at Iruka who had gone very still.

Iruka waged war with himself as to why a 9/10-year-old would already have decided to become a medical ninja. Not to mention, how an Uchiha of all people could have decided this when only one other Uchiha had ever became a medical ninja. Just what books had he read exactly? And how long had he been trying alone for?

His brain came up with an answer and he replied before he realised what he was saying, "Hm, well I'm not a medical ninja myself so I'm afraid I don't really know what the steps are, but we could go down to the hospital and see if someone could help you… "He said kindly, starting to think of ways to help the young boy in front of him _'I'm sure Mizuki may know someone'_ he smiled before adding "if you are sure…" as an afterthought.

Sasuke was surprised to start with, that Iruka would actually help him. And go with him to the hospital. But also, because he didn't say it would be too hard for him or that he was too young or anything. He knew from the books he had read that medical ninja had to be highly intellectual and have great chakra control among other things.

He welled up with relief and happiness that was bubbling up and making him smile despite himself. Sasuke waited for Iruka to finish tidying up the classroom. Iruka decided he liked this kid, he had never properly spoken to him other than asking questions in class but the way he was almost bouncing up and down from happiness made Iruka like him.

If only some of the other ninja in his class could get so passionate about ninja study _'like Naruto or Kiba… or even that lazy bones Shikamaru'_ he thought with a huff.

"Well then, let's go" he said smiling and led Sasuke first to the teachers' lounge where he found Mizuki grumbling over some coffee, "Oi Mizuki, do you know any medical ninja?" he asked.

Mizuki looked up "only Iyashi, why?" he said. Iruka smiled, "I'm going to take Sasuke to find a medical ninja to teach him at the hospital" he said, "wanna come along?"

Mizuki paused for a moment but then shrugged, "Sure it gets me out of grading papers, I swear my class never do any of the readings I set" he sulked.

They left the academy, Iruka softly took Sasuke's hand so he didn't get lost, Sasuke wasn't too happy about that but left it alone. He was too excited that he was getting the chance to possibly learn medical ninjutsu properly.

They arrived at the hospital and he resisted bouncing up and down as Iruka asked the receptionist if Iyashi was free.

Then they were led into an office and Mizuki and Iruka spoke on behalf of Sasuke. They asked if there was anything he could do to become a medical ninja at such a young age and Sasuke held his breath.

Iyashi looked apprehensive.

But he also looked curious.

He asked about the academy training that has been done, but because Sasuke hadn't been taught proper ninjutsu techniques at the academy yet it would be hard to teach him medical ninjutsu techniques.

"What exactly have you read?" asked Iyashi.

Sasuke paused, _'what did he know?'_

He wasn't ignorant to the techniques like mystical palm, where the ninja focuses chakra into the palms of their hands, creating a small ball of healing chakra. But the only technique like that he had tried was kyuukyuu no jutsu, first aid technique.

The book he'd read explained it as a way of teaching medical ninja chakra control. It made a weak field of healing chakra that could heal small cuts and burns but couldn't really heal much more. It would take him a lot of practice and chakra control to even attempt the mystical palm technique because you had to apply exactly the right amount of chakra for the extent of the injury. Using too much or too little chakra was dangerous.

"I can do kyuukyuu no jutsu... and I've been practicing chakra control" he said. "There are a lot of books in Konoha library but I don't always understand what they say..."

Iyashi sat back in his chair and stared at him for a while.

"Alright kid," he said "you've got conviction, I like that."

Iruka smiled politely, "of course Sasuke still has class, but perhaps we can work out a system"

Iyashi nodded, "Sasuke can come to the hospital and shadow me, it might sound boring but it's the best way to get knowledge on illnesses and injuries. I work everyday so after class and weekends suit me just fine"

Sasuke bounced up and down nervously, ' _was this really happening?'_ He thought, Mizuki and Iyashi were bent over a desk writing out a list of books. Iruka looked down at him and smiled. "Don't worry Sasuke-kun, you need to be very knowledgeable to become a medical ninja but if you read and practice with Iyashi sensei it should all come together with time."

After all Sasuke would need to study a lot to be a medical ninja including herbs, poisons, human anatomy, biology and be able to put theory into practice when someone was injured.

Iyashi spun around in his chair to face them again, "alright I've got a list of beginners books that we used to give out to academy students, Ninja God knows why we started taking medical ninja specialisation out of academy training" he huffed.

"well it was decided that ninja shouldn't specialise until they are Genin just in case... y'know after, that happened..." Iruka and Mizuki said, looking sheepish.

"Well, Sasuke, there are lots of medical techniques you can learn during the academy that give you a good basis, once you've mastered the basic academy ninjutsu and medical ninjutsu to a level Iruka deems satisfactory I'll ask the Hokage to make you an apprentice at the hospital," said Iyashi.

"Really?" He asked, "then i'll graduate as fast as I can and come and work here!"

Iruka sweat dropped, "well there is no need to be hasty, after all, if you want to be a field medic it's better to become a genin and have a team. Rather than just ditch everything and go to the hospital."

"field medic?" asked Sasuke.

"Of course," replied Iyashi, "do you want to be a doctor of the hospital, an elite medic like me or a field medic? If you get good enough you could even become part of a medical ninja team rather than a 3-man team under a Jonin"

"...I just want to protect people" said Sasuke.

The teachers looked at him curiously but Iyashi just nodded. "Then stay in the academy until you pass to Genin level, you can come to the hospital or do your own studies in your own time."

"It is a good idea for you to take your time in education and take your time learning in the academy before becoming a Genin rather than skipping grades and having to work harder against older ninja," Iruka agreed.

Sasuke nodded, "okay," as long as he could help Iyashi at the hospital he was happy. Although he wished some of the people in his grade weren't so stupid, or annoying.

Like Naruto, they rarely spoke to each other but he often saw him on his own... maybe he could have spoken to him more, but the blonde was kind of annoying, he spent almost all his time playing stupid pranks and doing stupid things like paint the faces of the Hokage statues.

Sasuke preferred to ignore the idiot and study.

 _'But_ ,' he thought with a smile, ' _now I can really practice and study properly_.'

And so, he began coming to the hospital whenever he possibly could.

…..

"Good morning, Sasuke".

"Am I late?" He panted.

"Did you run all the way here?" Iyashi laughed. "For now, you are just going to follow me alright? I will explain the things I do as I do them. There's a lot for you to learn."

They began to walk around the hospital, and as they walked Iyashi lectured, "The most important thing for any medical ninja, is bandages. Bandages are everything; therefore, a field ninja must know the two jutsu that allow improvised bandages and casts out in the field. Gantai no jutsu and Niwasuto no jutsu. They will allow you to make bandages and casts by mixing your chakra with sand, wood, grass, water or other things out in the field. It could be the difference between life and death for your teammates."

Sasuke nodded.

"They are Genin level jutsu, but you're still learning at the academy so take your time. I'm going to show you a lot of jutsu at the hospital but you will have to practice them in your own time" he smiled. "Of course, Iruka will help you go over the D rank jutsu at the academy."

So, that was how Sasuke spent his next year or two. He would go to class, tend the plants in his garden, immediately go to the hospital and shadow, or sometimes help-out, Iyashi-Sensei, then return home, or go to the training grounds and practice chakra control or D rank medical ninjutsu.

It was bitter work, but he didn't care, medical ninjutsu was the main thing he focused on, everything else became kind of obsolete.

Iruka sensei had to remind him to eat now and then, along with physical training and basic ninja techniques.

He practiced bandaging any chance he could. However, due to his increasing chakra control, he remained in the top level of the academy, Iyashi constantly forced books on him and Iruka constantly reminded him to study or train for the academy tests.

They finally began learning intermediate and advanced ninjutsu and throwing techniques at the academy. Sasuke fell behind slightly with throwing techniques, he hadn't really been practicing with kunai much lately.

There were just so many academy level things he had to learn. And most of them took a lot of reading and understanding about human anatomy, things like diagnosis, muscle groups for shiatsu, proper disinfecting, and extracting objects without further injuring people.

 _'Hm, I wonder how medical ninja use taijutsu and kunai...'_ he thought.

"Iruka-sensei" Sasuke said. It wasn't odd for him to stay behind after class, most days, he would stay to ask Iruka-sensei or Mizuki-sensei questions about the academy level jutsu.

Although he had never out right told anyone at the academy that he was training to be a medical ninja. And he really didn't plan too, it was none of their business... They had noticed how often he spoke to the teachers and started calling him a teacher's pet behind his back…

But it was probably because he had high grades, so they thought he was sucking up to the teachers to get good grades or something. The girls on the other hand would never shut up about how smart he was. Today was no different, he ignored the other students and focused on his own studies.

"Yes Sasuke-kun?"

"Do medical-nin use kunai? I've never seen Iyashi-sensei with one." he asked.

"Well that's because you only ever see him at the hospital" he laughed. "However, most medical ninja use senbon for precision. You can buy them at most weapon shops but they will be difficult for you to learn. We'll stick to throwing kunai and shuriken in class, you aren't bad at it, in fact I think your technique is good, but your precision isn't always perfect and you will need that with senbon," he smiled kindly.

Sasuke immediately went out to the nearest weapons shop.

The bell ting'd as he entered, and a young girl with hair buns shouted out a greeting. She seemed a bit young to be restocking weapons supplies, but he would be a hypocrite to judge on age.

He wandered around the shop for a while picking out a few nice-looking kunai before finding the senbon. There were a lot of different types. Damn, he should have considered what types would be best for a beginner really. The young girl was staring at him curiously out of the corner of his eye. He glanced at her. She smiled warmly.

"Can I help you with anything" she asked. He didn't respond and turned back to the senbon, but she came over with a bubbly grin.

"I don't usually see people buying senbon" she carried on, "they are great for precision but usually people go for throwing stars or fancy looking kunai."

"I'm going to be a medical ninja" he stated. "I will learn senbon." She looked startled at his statement but then grinned widely.

"Oh really, well perhaps you could buy the set," she suggested pointing to a box on the side, "it has two of all the different senbons, the standard size to practice with is this one here, 12cm to 15cm, the longer ones are harder to throw."

"You know how to use them?" He asked.

Her grin widened. "As the future best kunoichi in Konoha I'm going to learn how to use all types of weapon." She said. He nodded, another person with a goal… at least hers was more manageable than that idiot Naruto who claimed to want to be Hokage because he wanted recognition… idiot.

"…could you show me how to use the senbon?" He asked. He didn't like making a habit of asking people for help but if she could show him how they are used then at least he wouldn't have to start from scratch... And maybe she could help him with kunai throwing too if she was a weapons expert.

She beamed at him "Of course!" She said, "We could meet at my parent's dojo. How's Saturday for you?" She asked.

"After 3pm on Saturday is fine…" he said carefully.

"Oh, are you busy Saturday mornings" she said looking surprised, most the ninja their age slept all weekend to be honest, and she recognised him from the class in the year below her.

"I volunteer part time at the hospital most days" he said.

"Ohhhh," she looked impressed. "So… do you want to be like a field medic or like hospital stuff?" She asked moving around the till so Sasuke could pay for his items.

"Field…" he replied.

"So like Tsunade-Sama?" she asked looking excited.

"…Who?" He asked.

"Whaaaat? You want to be a great medical ninja but you don't know who Tsunade the Legendary Sannin is! She's the best medical ninja in the world, someday I'm going to be as great a kunoichi as her" she said sighing a little in a dreamy way. "Your total is 5000 yen by the way."

He paid for his items, she seemed very … bubbly, but she wasn't trying to flirt with him like most of the other girls he knew so he could probably get along with her.

"There you go, I'm Tenten by the way, come to the Dojo down the street from here on Saturday, we'll meet at 3:30 and practice until we can no longer move!" She grinned. Sasuke nodded at her optimism.

They practiced together every Saturday, it turned out that Tenten was also interested in medical ninjutsu and loved everything about the legendary Sannin Tsunade. She began helping him with some of the academy level medical things she had learned. But she said she was waiting to become a Genin to see what she would do, after all she had a strong fixation on using weapons and that wasn't good for a medical ninja.

After a few months Tenten graduated the academy, he went to see her at the graduation and congratulated her for making Genin.

They moved their training schedule to Sundays so Tenten could have more time with her new team but otherwise he was still content.

Tenten started developing a fuinjutsu fighting style, and he was getting better at senbon, they started training to increase their speed too. Iyashi-sensei told him that a medical ninja had to be really fast to avoid getting hit. They were usually the targets in the field.

He first met Rock Lee after he turned 11, Tenten invited him to the dojo to spar with them.

"It's YOU" Rock Lee shouted pointing at him and posing in a comical stance.

…what was he wearing…

"Lee!" Tenten shouted "don't be rude! I told you I usually train here with a friend."

"You didn't tell me that friend was THE Uchiha Sasuke" the guy in a green bodysuit with a bad haircut shouted back at her.

Sasuke resisted the urge to growl.

"Sasuke, meet my team mate Rock Lee, he is a taijutsu specialist who almost beat Hyuuga Neji once or twice."

Lee glared at him as he approached. "I will beat him someday. You don't need to use genjutsu to be a good ninja" he huffed.

"Lee," Tenten said glaring at him for good measure. "Sasuke is training to be a medical ninja, so I thought it would be good for you two to spar together, we already train with weapons every weekend but Sasuke really needs to get faster" she said smiling.

Lee's face immediately twisted into a wide smile. "REALLY!" he shouted, "Sure! Let's do some training!" he said pulling Sasuke to the centre of the room with him.

"…Tenten what have you got me into" Sasuke muttered.

"So like can you use your Sharingan and stuff" Lee questioned.

"…I can try and activate it if you want but I've only used it once" Sasuke replied.

"WHaaaaaaaaaaaaT" shouted Lee again, "But it's like… your thing! You gotta learn how to use it and stuff" he complained.

"Well I don't really have anyone to teach me how to use it" Sasuke muttered.

"You do now!" Shouted Lee, "me and Tenten are gonna help!" Sasuke decided that Lee's optimism was next level but, if they could really help him to train his Sharingan more that could be helpful… he just didn't like using it because the only time he activated it before was when... Itachi…

…..

The final exams for the academy were coming up fast, all they did in class nowadays was practice the transformation technique and clone technique.

They were expected to know how to use the body replacement technique, the rope escaping technique and they had to be able to get themselves out of illusionary genjutsu along with having full knowledge on how to create traps and how to use their chakra well.

Sasuke was mainly annoyed that he had less time to study medicine because he had to keep up with the academy level things.

The written exams were just starting and many students were complaining.

"Iruka-Sensei" Sasuke said.

Iruka smiled, wiping down the board as he did at the end of every lesson, "yes Sasuke-kun"

Sasuke sighed, "I need to improve my chakra control" he said.

Iruka blinked and looked down at him. "Why do you say that? Your chakra control is one of the best in the class"

"Best in the class doesn't mean it's good enough for medical ninjutsu" Sasuke huffed.

"Ahh I see, you want to use graduating as a way to get Iyashi-san to teach you better medical ninjutsu" Iruka said laughing.

Sasuke glared at him, "I've been watching him for 2 years now, but he still says I'm not ready" he said… and he was NOT pouting.

"Hmmm, well you've done the leaf concentration exercise that I usually force the students to do, and I've seen your chakra control on the academy techniques is great. He is probably just waiting for you to become a proper Genin, have you decided whether you are going to go into a team when you graduate or just start apprenticing at the hospital?" asked Iruka.

"…Iyashi-Sensei said that if I want to be a field ninja I need all the practice I can get so I should go into a three-man team and still go to the hospital in my spare time instead" he huffed.

"You don't want to be part of a team?" Iruka asked.

"I don't want to waste my time!" Sasuke said sternly. "I want to be a medical ninja and so far, I can only heal scratches. I can't do anything for real injuries."

Iruka laughed, "That's not true Sasuke, you can do many of the D rank medical techniques and since you aren't exactly a Genin yet, even that is impressive. You make medical salves and medicines in your spare time. You can also use senbon accurately, and you've read far more books than I have on medical ninjutsu. I would say you are much further ahead than most medical ninja are when they start training. Besides you're still young, you have time."

Sasuke pouted.

"Tell you what… If you're so sure you're ready for more jutsu I will show you a training exercise that will help you with your chakra control" Iruka said watching Sasuke perk up again.

They pulled Mizuki sensei along with them.

"You've been training with Rock Lee and Tenten right? Their teacher Gai-Sensei keeps telling me he wants to meet you, apparently, he wants to thank you for motivating them or something" Iruka said as they walked to the training grounds.

"Yeah and we've been keeping him away so he doesn't ambush you with his green beast spirit" Mizuki sensei laughed. Iruka elbowed him.

"Tenten and I practice with weapons and Lee's helping me become faster" Sasuke said, "I'm not really motivating them they're just helping me…"

"Helping someone sounds like a good enough motivation to me" Iruka smiled.

"Tenten's been showing me how to use enclosing techniques recently…" he said.

"That's good, it will probably be very useful for you to carry medical equipment in a scroll rather than on your person" Iruka said smiling. "Ah here we are" he said, they were at a clearing with a few trees.

"I'm sure by now you know enough about chakra so we won't have to give you an overview" said Mizuki-Sensei, he sounded a little off but Sasuke couldn't tell why.

"We're still doing an overview" Iruka said glaring at Mizuki. "Your chakra system is a system in your body much like the respiratory system. You know that moulding chakra means using both your spirit energy and body energy, to effectively use your chakra you need to be able to balance that energy, using too much will waste your chakra, use too little and your techniques won't work, both would be terrible mistakes in combat. Particularly for a medical ninja. So, to learn how to control your chakra with your body-"

"-We're going to teach you how to climb a tree" interrupted Mizuki receiving a smack on the head.

"Climb a tree?" asked Sasuke, raising an eyebrow.

"Up until now I know you have practiced a lot with your techniques to use the right amount of chakra, I'm sure you've also spent a lot of time meditating to raise your chakra levels. But this exercise will help you to learn how to mould the correct amount of chakra through rigorous training. Watch carefully" said Iruka-Sensei.

He made a hand symbol to mould some chakra, then walked up the tree vertically without his hands, it looked as easy as walking along the ground, he even walked upside down on a branch.

"You gather chakra at the bottom of your feet and make it attach to the tree trunk. Something like this is possible if you use your chakra perfectly. You need to accumulate enough to allow you to walk up the tree without falling, but use too much and you will break the tree. The feet is the most difficult place to accumulate chakra, in theory if you master this technique you should be able to use any technique." He said smiling.

"Use a kunai to mark where you get up to, you should probably give yourself a running start too. First collect chakra at your feet." Iruka sensei said hopping down from the tree.

He sat down and started reading a book, Mizuki huffed and walked off a little while later. Iruka wasn't sure what was wrong with him lately, he seemed to be getting angrier and angrier the closer they got to graduation.

Iruka smiled watching Sasuke practice, he was truly a gifted student and from how hard he worked he was certain to be a wonderful medical ninja in the future.

It took Sasuke just over a week to get to the top of the tree, and Iruka made a point of telling Iyashi he had completed the exercise.

Iyashi just laughed when he told him. "I guess now I have no choice but to start teaching him properly huh?"

"You won't be disappointed I assure you" Iruka replied with a smile.

Two days before the final exam Naruto was being an idiot again and inventing his own jutsu he called 'the seduction technique' where he basically just turned into a half-naked woman. Iruka was furious because Naruto had failed the past two final exams and was set to fail this one too unless he trained properly.

Honestly, Sasuke had seen Naruto training. He was terrible at written exams but had enough energy to simply annoy his enemy to death. The one thing he couldn't do was the clone jutsu, he used waay too much chakra from what Sasuke could see...

Their graduation passed quickly and Iruka never told Sasuke the truth about the events surrounding the final day of graduation.

Long story short. Mizuki-sensei went crazy and Naruto somehow graduated.

However, this went unnoticed by Sasuke who wasn't close to Naruto at all. In fact, the idiot was always challenging him to fights in every lesson and being an overall bother to the class with his pranks and loud attitude.

All that mattered to Sasuke was that he had graduated.

"Iyashi-Sensei! I graduated now so you have to take me seriously!" Sasuke said, entering the hospital.

"Oh? I have to treat a little Genin kid seriously do I" Iyashi replied. "You still have to pass the secondary test to become a Genin first but I suppose… I might start teaching you how to use the C Rank Chiyute no Jutsu now, also known as mystical hands." He said. Sasuke glared at him.

"Secondary test?" he asked.

"Yup, after you graduate you still have to do another test to become an official Genin" Iyashi smirked back at him. "And believe me, this new technique is far above your level and is going to take you a long time to learn" he said smirking down at the pouting Uchiha, "you have learned all the basic healing techniques, so now you just have to keep studying. You know all the basic academy ninjutsu now, and I've taught you all the D rank techniques too, although you're not very good with them," He leant back in his chair and seemed to ponder things for a while.

"Alright" he said, standing up. "If you pass the secondary test then I suppose I could start to teach you the final D rank techniques. After all you HAVE finished the academy level training." he smirked and picked some medical books off of his bookshelf,

"And then, there is a simple healing technique that causes blood to coagulate around a wound quicker. The wound remains but the bleeding stops. It could save a comrade's life out on a mission. It also makes it easier to heal them with kyuukyuu no jutsu" he flicked through the book nonchalantly before picking out a few more.

His smile turned into a wicked grin. "But of course, if you fail the secondary test and have to go back to the academy or get kicked out the program, then I suppose you will just have to become a doctor instead and maybe I'd just go over the academy and D rank jutsu again. I certainly wouldn't let you do any proper techniques for a while" he said.

"You're mean Iyashi-Sensei" Sasuke growled. "Just you wait I will pass the secondary test and you will have to teach me all you know"

Iyashi laughed. "I sure hope so. Honestly, I've taught you everything you need to know to heal a Genin level team so at this point you just need to practice. Which you need a team for. Take the next few days off, you need to bond with your team" he said with a smile then piled the books into Sasuke's arms. "Read these too" he said.

Sasuke sighed, he would read the books, but he mainly planned to spend the next few days with Tenten and Lee. Recently, he had started to see Hinata around a little more but she seemed to be hard crushing on Naruto and mostly just watched while trying to get up the nerve to speak to him… Sasuke wanted to help but he really didn't want to speak to the idiot

He sat in bed and read through some books about the academy level jutsu.

* * *

I love medical Ninja…. So, yes. This fanfiction might get detailed in medical techniques and stuff. If anyone finds a mistake feel free to tell me and I will edit it.

Honestly this will be a NaruSasu eventually… but eventually is… eventually... like maybe in 20 chapters or something lol


	2. To become a Genin

Had some time when I should have been studying and ended up writing the next chapter.

...now that I'm done I have to go back to studying...

* * *

CHAPTER 2

First day. Explanatory meeting.

Sasuke hated them all. Sakura wouldn't stop shooting him dopey fangirl eyes and Naruto was just… Naruto. Not to mention the fact that Naruto just stared at him for ages, only to fall forwards and kiss him in front of the whole class... and he was now getting beat up by all the girls. Sakura's muttering of how she wanted his first kiss and how Naruto stole it was also really putting him off.

"Today we will create 3 man teams, each of you will have a Jounin-sensei, you will follow your sensei's instructions in order to successfully complete your missions" lectured Iruka-sensei.

Sasuke huffed, ' _a group of three… well I need a group so I can practice, but if they are just going to hold me back then I would rather not have a team…_ ' he sighed. It really wasn't the first day he wanted and getting paired with Naruto and Sakura in a team just topped off his annoyance. He had to become stronger and better and medical ninjutsu, and if the way to do that was to act with a team then… fine. Although to act like a comrade with Naruto would be annoying. At least Sakura might grow out of her stupid fangirl stage.

Naruto stood up dramatically and pointed at Sasuke, "Iruka sensei why is a top student like me in a group with this guy," he shouted.

Sasuke glared at him, oh yeah this was going to be difficult.

"Sasuke graduated with one of the best scores in the class, and you Naruto were dead last" said Iruka sensei, shaking his head. "We put the groups together like this because we want to evenly divide abilities between the groups."

"Don't hold me back, dobe," Sasuke muttered.

"What did you say?" shouted Naruto.

"You want to fight? Dobe." Sasuke said louder.

"Stop it Naruto" Sakura growled and glared at Naruto threateningly, she somehow managed to sit between him and Naruto.

Iruka sighed, "with the teams put together like this there is more room to learn and improve, for all members" he said eyeing the new Team 7.

...

Sasuke went home after, there was no reason to stick around anyway. Usually he would go to the hospital but Iyashi told him to take time off… he sighed. He didn't really want to waste a day. But hanging out with those two would be troublesome.

He went home and went through his ninja items, sealing his medical supplies into scrolls that he then kept in his arm warmers. He also kept a few kunai in his pouch with his bandages but mostly fought with senbon that he kept in his leg holster.

' _Today is getting more and more troublesome'_ he thought.

Not to mention, Naruto ambushed him in his house with the B rank shadow clone jutsu. Who knew the dead last could actually do something, ' _maybe it wouldn't be so terrible to be in a group with him'_ he thought escaping the ropes easily and chasing after the idiot.

He wandered around looking out for Naruto, the idiot had used the transformation jutsu to turn into him before he left, he wondered what he was planning.

He walked past Sakura in his search and she jumped up excited and started spouting off some stuff about emotions and how he was 'shy' as he passed her.

"Where's Naruto?" he asked. He had to at least get the idiot back for ambushing him.

"Changing the subject again? Forget about Naruto. All he does is pick quarrels with you probably because he had an irregular childhood. you know he doesn't have parents, right? He's so lucky, all alone with no parents to say what to do and what not to do. But that's why he's always doing selfish things. My parents would scold me for those things. If you're alone, you don't have parents to get mad at you that's why he's so selfish." Sakura appeared to be going into a rant.

(OMG I HATE SAKURA PRE-SHIPPUDEN, [i also copied and pasted Sakura's rant from the actual manga, -disclaimer-] don't worry she gets better...)

' _Why would she say something like that?_ ' Sasuke thought.

"All alone…" He said quietly.

She looked confused, "What?" she asked, she really didn't understand did she.

"Do you understand what it feels like to be alone? The feeling of a parent yelling at you is nowhere near what he feels" he sighed, thinking back on his parents, to have them here now even just to scold him was more than he could even dream of.

"What wrong Sasuke-kun?" she asked, still clueless.

"You're annoying." Sasuke deadpanned and walked off.

So, it seemed that Sakura would be the worst in the group. Saying something like that about Naruto... not having parents was…

"Why are you here?" Naruto shouted running up to him.

"Untying ropes is basic. What did you plan by transforming into me anyway?" he replied.

"I just did it because it seemed fun" Naruto shouted far too loudly, using the shadow clone technique again. Damn he was going to have to find a good way to counter that, then suddenly the Naruto's all ran off screaming about needing the bathroom...

'… _how stupid'_ he thought watching the Naruto's fight each other… their team was doomed. And with Sakura and Naruto on his team he was doomed too.

He checked the time, they were meeting their new sensei soon, so he headed back to the academy.

Why couldn't Iyashi-sensei just teach him better healing jutsus already~ he was precise enough with his senbon to do things like acupuncture and he and Lee had been practicing hitting people's pressure points... he knew how to help someone that couldn't breathe, he knew how to warm someone from hypothermia…

Well to be fair, that jutsu he still needed more practice with... but, it was annoying, he couldn't actually help in a fight yet… unless the fight was against a cat or something. He sighed, maybe he should practice more with the academy level jutsu, at least he could fight with those... and he always had his fire techniques... maybe he could do this. He just had to work hard and practice more.

At least now he could get proper experience in missions.

They sat in the classroom together, their teacher was late and Iruka sensei had already gone home. So, they just sat there waiting.

Naruto got bored first and started playing a prank by putting the eraser at the top of the door.

Sasuke sighed. "A jounin isn't going to fall for a plain old trick like that" he said.

Although he was proven wrong as the jounin walked through the door and got hit on the head with the eraser.

Sakura immediately began rambling "I'm sorry sensei I tried to stop him but Naruto did it anyway," as Naruto outright laughed.

'… _I shouldn't have got my hopes up, even Iruka sensei always falls for Naruto's stupid tricks.'_ Sasuke thought.

Their new sensei looked over at them, his face was masked and his forehead protector covered one eye… ' _how does he get depth perception'_ Sasuke wondered. "My first impressions of you guys are… I hate you" said their new teacher.

Greaaaat, they'd only just met, and the guy already had a reason not to pass them.

They were led up to the roof of the school to have a talk.

Their teacher, Kakashi, looked at them all.

"Let's see… why don't you introduce yourselves." He said, sounding bored.

"Ehh?" said Sakura "but what should we say" she asked.

"What you like, hate, your dreams, hobbies you know things like that" replied Kakashi. Sasuke thought about it… he liked… reading books on medicine and anatomy… hated… fangirls. Dreams? To someday be strong enough to kill his brother… and to never have to watch someone close to him die again, hobbies? Studying? Training? Did they count as hobbies? He sighed. He didn't really want to share with these guys.

"Okay sensei you go first!" Shouted Naruto

Kakashi sighed, "alright, let's see… I'm Hatake Kakashi. I have no intention of telling you my likes or dislikes. As for my dream…. I guess I have a few hobbies." He said,

' _Well if he is going to say so little…'_ Sasuke thought.

"All we found out was his name" Sakura muttered.

"Now your turn." Kakashi said pointing to Naruto.

"YOSH! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Believe it!" Naruto immediately began rambling about ramen. Sasuke wondered why he is was bouncing around in his seat so much. He was far too energetic and kept moving around his headband. Perhaps he was just a very hyper person And of course, he announced his dream of being Hokage so that the village would acknowledge his existence.

"Riiiight" said Kakashi, yeah that was the usual reaction to Naruto's dream.

Also, if Naruto said 'believe it', one more goddamn time...

Sakura began her self-introduction, "I'm Haruno Sakura." She started, "what I like… well you see, the person I like is…" she glanced over at him.

' _Oh, give me a break'_ Sasuke thought. Naruto started glaring at him too. Ugh.

"My hobby is… well, my dream is…" she cut herself off with a scream.

"And what do you hate?" Asked Kakashi.

"Naruto." She deadpanned.

Naruto sulked loudly.

Damn these two were annoying…. Not to mention Sakura kept glancing at him, it was making him extremely uncomfortable, he was kind of glad Naruto was sat in the middle of them to keep her away. Throughout the academy she was always staring at him, trying to talk to him or impress him. But most of her attempts at conversation just left him confused to be honest.

Kakashi sighed loudly, and looked away from the pinkette. "And now you" he said staring at him.

Sasuke linked his hands together softly, "I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I mainly like training and medicine. There are a great deal of things I hate. I don't have a dream only an ambition. I'm going to be a medical ninja and someday kill a certain man." He said.

...Silence.

They all stared at him… maybe he should have left out that last part… he didn't really talk to people much. Was it too much information to tell people he wanted to kill his brother? Because he just really really wanted to kill his damn brother. Perhaps Iruka-sensei was right about him being socially awkward.

"Why a medical ninja" asked Kakashi, he seemed surprised.

"Does it matter" he replied, glaring.

"What's a medical ninja? Isn't that like a doctor? Why are you a ninja if you wanna be a doctor" Naruto asked, blunt and loud as usual.

Sasuke just glared at him.

"Naruto! There are many kinds of ninja, field medical ninja go out with a team and keep them alive on missions!" Sakura growled giving Sasuke even more glances as she blushed.

"OHHHHhhhhhhhhh" said Naruto, sitting back in thought.

"Alright, you three all have unique personalities. I like that." said Kakashi. "We're going to begin a mission tomorrow."

"Ahh! What is it? What is it?" shouted Naruto excitedly, bouncing up and down even more.

"Let's just call it, survival training" replied Kakashi, he still looked bored but there was a hint of evil in his tone.

"Ehhh, why are we going to train we had plenty of training at the academy" whined Sakura.

"It isn't training," said Sasuke, "We have to do a secondary test before we are officially genin." Naruto and Sakura looked shocked. It was lucky Iyashi-sensei told him or he would look just as confused as they did. I guess if it was just the end academy test there would be way more genin around.

"That's right," said Kakashi, laughing quite evilly. "Out of the 27 graduates only nine are going to become genin" he said. "The other 18 are sent back to the academy. In other words, the dropout rate is over 66%." Naruto and Sakura gaped.

"THEN WHAT WAS THE FINAL TEST FOR!" Shouted Naruto, he looked quite worried.

Sasuke was worried too to be honest, he had to pass this test so Iyashi-Sensei would teach him seriously and so he could become officially apprenticed at the hospital.

"Oh, that's just a test that picks out those qualified for genin. Tomorrow I will test you to see if you are good enough. We'll meet up tomorrow at 5am! Now then meeting over. Oh, and don't eat breakfast you'll throw it up if you do." he said and disappeared with one final glance at the Uchiha.

Sasuke glared at the spot Kakashi had disappeared in as Sakura and Naruto argued next to him. He wasn't going to skip breakfast, he had read many books on proper nutritional value. Even if it was something small he was still going to eat.

He looked at his team members, Naruto was suggesting he and Sakura go get some ramen. He sighed and left them on the roof.

...

Kakashi poofed back home and went over what he'd just learned. It was a surprise. A medical ninja. He never thought the Uchiha would go for something like that.

Of course, the murder comment wasn't surprising at all.

Let's see, so his team consisted of, Naruto who was obviously a loudmouth but the 3rd seemed to like him, and he kind of screamed 'isolation issues'... he could work with that as long as the kid wised up a little. Then there was the fangirl... it seemed like girls Sakura's age were more interested in boys than becoming ninja... but her test scores were apparently the highest so she just needed to train harder.

' _And then there's the so called, Last Uchiha, a medical ninja huh? I can't wait to see what I have to work with,_ ' Kakashi thought.

He was actually looking forward to seeing how they would do tomorrow…

...

Sasuke turned up at 5am, he went to bed early but usually he got up around 6:30 or 7am anyway, so he didn't mind so much. He also ate a protein bar for breakfast, it wasn't enough to make him feel ill if Kakashi's threat about them throwing up was enough to go by but at least he would have good enough strength.

Sakura and Naruto looked tired, far more tired than him.

They waited.

And waited.

And waited.

"He's going to be late again" muttered Sasuke.

Naruto looked half asleep, "Then why did he make us get up so early" he whined.

Sakura started getting annoyed and pacing around while muttering to herself.

And so they waited...

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto shouted when Kakashi finally turned up at around 10:30am.

Sasuke wondered if this was part of the plan, get them up early and then make them wait to lower their resolve.

Kakashi laughed nervously, "Well, you see a black cat crossed my path so, I had to go the long way around" Sakura and Naruto glared at him hard, and Kakashi let out a nervous cough "let's move on."

He set a timer for 12pm. "Today's test is to get one of these bells from me." he held up two bells and shook them so they tingled. "Whoever can't get a bell by noon won't get any lunch. I'm going to tie you there and eat lunch in front of you." he said pointing to three posts behind them.

' _How cruel_ ' Sasuke thought…telling them not to eat and then taunting them with food.

Naruto looked devastated and his stomach was already making loud noises.

"Ehh, but why are there only two bells?" asked Sakura.

Since there's only two at least one of you will be tied to a log" he said, smiling through his mask. "That person will fail and go back to the academy. It could be one or all three."

'… _that doesn't make sense'_ Sasuke thought, they were supposed to be a team of three how could they send back one? Surely it would be three or none. He would have to make sure he got a bell at least.

"You can use shuriken or whatever, you won't be able to get a bell unless you have the will to kill me after all," said Kakashi.

"But won't that mean you're in danger Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura, she looked worried, but to honest, Sasuke wondered if she even had the confidence to attempt to kill Kakashi.

Naruto pointed at Kakashi and laughed, "yeah and you couldn't even dodge a blackboard eraser!"

Sasuke glared, the other two were taking it too lightly. There had to be something more to this, Kakashi-sensei was a jounin, in theory he could defeat all three of them. Did he want to test their skills? But then why the bells?

Kakashi made a comment about how Naruto was dead last at the academy and Naruto suddenly pulled out a kunai and ran at him. He quickly ended up with his own kunai to the back of his head, Kakashi had barely moved.

"Not so hasty." he said, holding Naruto in place, "We haven't started yet."

' _Body flicker jutsu?'_ Sasuke thought. It was one of the techniques they had learned about it in the academy, but they were never shown how to do it. It allowed a ninja to move extra fast by strengthening themselves with chakra.

"But, it looks like you have the will to kill me. I think I can finally start liking you three." Kakashi smiled "We're going to start. Ready START."

Sasuke jumped away, quickly hiding himself in the trees and pulling out some senbon. Sakura also jumped away to somewhere close by to him but he couldn't quite see where.

Naruto just stood there like an idiot and started shouting that he was going to defeat Kakashi all alone in a fair fight.

' _Did he not know how to be a ninja? You can't just stand in front of your enemy like that'_ he thought.

He waited, at least if Naruto was going to be stupid he could use it to give himself an opening, a medical ninja was meant to stay back while the team fought but he needed to get the bell and so did Naruto and Sakura, if Naruto hid himself then maybe they could team up on Kakashi, at least that way he could support them like a medical ninja is supposed to do instead of fighting himself…

But then again, he didn't have a lot of medical jutsu he could use in this kind of circumstance. Maybe it would be better to focus on taijutsu and his other jutsu in order to get a bell.

Kakashi turned away from him slightly to talk to Naruto. Good he was in Kakashi's blind spot.

Then Kakashi pulled out a book named 'love love paradise' and started reading and giggling to himself…

"Shinobi fighting number one, I'll teach you about taijutsu, ninja hand to hand combat." said Kakashi loud enough for them all to hear.

"HEY WHAT'S WITH THE BOOK" shouted Naruto.

"I just want to know what happens next, don't worry it won't make a difference against you guys" said Kakashi.

' _Was Kakashi even taking this seriously?'_ He thought, or maybe Kakashi was just trying to rile them up more so they would make a mistake. It was working for Naruto. Kakashi dodged around him easily and blocked every attack.

Then Kakashi made a high level looking hand sign that was commonly used for fire jutsu. He appeared behind Naruto and he heard Sakura shouting at Naruto to run away. But then Kakashi literally just stabbed Naruto in the ass really hard and sent him flying into the nearby lake.

...was his whole team childish and stupid? Yes. It seemed like it.

Sakura had shouted loudly and pretty much given away her location, ' _so that's where Sakura is'_ he thought, he quickly jumped down next to her, better if they stuck together so Kakashi couldn't sneak up on them both. Kakashi didn't seem bothered by them anyway, he was fully focused on Naruto.

' _What an idiot.'_ Sasuke thought. Perhaps Kakashi was taking them seriously, he wanted to see what they can do? Fine, he would show him.

"Ah Sasuke-kun" said Sakura looking over at him. Had she only just noticed him? _'Pay more attention Sakura you have to focus on yourself not just Naruto'_ he thought.

"Wait for Naruto to give us an opening then attack" he said quietly, she nodded.

Shuriken came out of the water and Kakashi caught them easily.

' _They just had to wait for him to lower his guard…. Even a little. It was annoying that they were on a timer though._ _Kakashi may have his back to him but he was still a jounin and if he could catch all of Naruto's attacks that easily he could probably catch my senbon too… if I aim well when he is distracted then maybe…_ ' he thought.

Naruto unfortunately reminded them all of food during his rambling about becoming a ninja, damn he was starting to get hungry and judging from the noises Sakura's stomach was making she was hungry too.

Then a wave of Naruto's shadow clones shot out of the water to attack Kakashi together.

' _Good. Naruto's taking it more seriously_ ' he thought.

Naruto got Kakashi from behind and Sasuke almost thought he had caught him, but a simple body replacement technique was enough to fool the idiot… if only Naruto knew more about the simple jutsu, he would be a better ninja.

But where's Kakashi now, Sasuke thought looking around quickly, if Kakashi got behind him or Sakura it would be dangerous… at least if he snuck behind Naruto, the idiot would be stupid enough to get himself out of a situation… even if he did just beat himself up with his own shadow clones trying to find Kakashi…

A bell lay on the ground next to Naruto who immediately threw himself at it thinking Kakashi-sensei had dropped it… Naruto ended up hanging from a tree. But as Kakashi stood after picking up the bell from the ground… _'he's unguarded_ ' Sasuke thought.

"now" he whispered to Sakura and threw several senbon quickly. Sakura threw a kunai herself, her aim was perfectly accurate he mused but she certainly wasn't aiming to hurt their sensei.

He aimed his senbon for Kakashi's neck, not a place that would truly kill him but a place that would cause paralysis if he hit the right pressure point, or bring him to a near death state at worst. His aim and force probably wasn't enough for that though.

' _Ooo some teamwork_ ' thought Kakashi using the replacement technique again with ease. _'Time to go mess with them.'_

' _Damn_ ' Sasuke thought, "move" he said to Sakura pulling her away from their spot. It would be so much easier if Naruto would just team up with them. Now Kakashi knew where they were it was going to be harder to avoid him. Perhaps he lowered his guard on purpose to see if they would go for him.

He looked behind him… it seemed Sakura had been left behind, he didn't think he was running that fast. He quickly made a trap of kunai in case Kakashi came.

He heard Sakura scream, ' _Damn, Kakashi must have found her, I wonder what he did…'_

Kakashi appeared behind him, "Shinobi fighting lesson 2, Genjutsu. Sakura easily fell for it when I showed her an illusion of you beat to a bloody pulp… perhaps I over did it though, she passed out" he said, "smart of you to work together with Sakura and use Naruto as a distraction, but you shouldn't have split yourself up again."

"You can't fool me like you did them" Sasuke said.

"Say that after you get a bell," Replied Kakashi. They faced off to each other. He pulled out more senbon.

"Oh, so you really do use senbon? I suppose you were serious about medical ninjutsu then? But is it enough to face me?" Kakashi asked.

He threw a senbon to cut his small trap of kunai and a bunch of kunai went for Kakashi forcing him to move. Sasuke went in for taijutsu. He jammed a senbon into Kakashi's shoulder, twisting his body to go for the bell. He almost got it but Kakashi managed to jump away and pulled the senbon out.

"You were trying to make me unable to use my arm weren't you" he said rolling his shoulder blade. ' _Just a bit closer._ ' Sasuke thought. _'If only he was better at hitting pressure points he could have stopped Kakashi's arm for a while'_

"You're fast" commented Kakashi.

"I have to be if I want to be a good medical ninja" he replied.

' _At least Kakashi wasn't able to go easy on him_ ' he thought.

"I'll admit you're different from those two, you've certainly trained more," Kakashi said. "But shouldn't a medical ninja stay back and heal his team?" he asked.

Sasuke nodded in agreement, "but Naruto's too busy trying to do it alone and since Sakura isn't here," he made the hand signs for the grand fireball jutsu. Serpent, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger. It was a jutsu his father taught him years ago, fire genjutsu was a specialty of the Uchiha clan... He just wished he knew more Uchiha clan techniques…

He breathed fire out his mouth, Kakashi was a jounin so he shouldn't get fried to a crisp at least.

The fire cleared. ' _He's gone!'_ he thought.

Tenten's words echoed in his mind, if you can't see the enemy. 'Keep moving' she always said. He quickly jumped back to the trees. He didn't want to be ambushed by Kakashi. But where did he go? Sakura suddenly ran out into the clearing shouting about how Sasuke couldn't die and leave her behind and got pulled underground up to her head by Kakashi almost immediately.

"Shinobi fighting lesson number 3, Ninjutsu, it was smart of you to move… but now your teammate is stuck, who taught a 12 year old fire jutsu anyway" Sasuke face palmed as Kakashi walked away muttering about almost getting singed. He helped Sakura get out, at least she didn't appear to be injured.

They walked back towards the posts. It was noon already and Naruto was tied to a log.

"Out of the three of you, at least two of you should quit being ninja for good." Said Kakashi. "But as it is, I don't think any of you deserve to pass or become Genin, So I'll just make you all quit."

' _Damnit_ ' he thought. There was definitely more to this than it seemed, Naruto was screaming about how it was unfair. ' _He couldn't fail now… what did they need to do'_

"The three of you don't understand the answer to this test. The answer to determine whether you pass or fail. Are your brains empty? Why do you think you are in a group of three? Teamwork" stated Kakashi.

"You mean cooperation with each other" asked Sakura. She had the audacity to look surprised.

"Yes, this training is purposely set up to make you fight against each other that's why there are only 2 bells but if you can forget about your own interests then the three of you will pass regardless. but it's too late. If the three of you came at me all at once then you could have gotten a bell" said Kakashi.

"Sakura, instead of Naruto who was right in front of you, you only thought about Sasuke and had to wait for him to ask you to help. Naruto all you did was run around by yourself, you didn't even attempt to work with anyone else. Only Sasuke even attempted to team up, likely that's due to his medical ninja knowledge, but he still ended up having to do things himself because you two weren't trying to be a team with him." Kakashi lectured. "As it is, none of you are ready."

' _Shit'_ Sasuke thought. Now he understood, being on a team meant working with the team, the three of them had gone off on their own. Naruto just being a loudmouth and Sakura got left behind then fainted apparently. If they had grouped together and thought of a plan then certainly they could have done something… He should have forced them to work with him at least.

"Look at this," Kakashi said, "the numerous names carved into this stone are those of ninja heroes who protected the village."

"AH! I want my name carved there too! I want to be a hero!" shouted Naruto.

Kakashi turned and glared at him "They are all heroes who were killed in action while out on missions." Naruto turned solemn. "This is a memorial. The names of my best friends are carved in here as well." the atmosphere turned a lot more serious.

Kakashi stared at the memorial for a while.

"I'll give you one more chance," he said at last. "After lunch the battle will be much harder. Only eat if you are ready. And Naruto doesn't get anything as punishment for when I came back and he was trying to cheat by eating the lunch I left here by himself... Whoever feeds him will fail." Kakashi said sternly. Sasuke sighed. At least they got another chance… they could still do this.

Kakashi left them and they started to eat slowly.

Naruto whined pathetically on the log. "I'm okay even if I don't eat I'm okay" he was saying to himself.

Sasuke sighed. Kakashi kept telling them to skip meals, which really wasn't good, particularly because they were ninja... they needed extra nutrition to keep their strength up while fighting. Naruto needed his strength and he probably skipped breakfast that morning too.

"Here" he said giving Naruto his rice.

"Sasuke-kun! But what about what Kakashi-sensei said!" exclaimed Sakura.

"Doesn't matter, we three are going to get the bells together and we'll be in trouble if he's hungry." Sakura nodded and offered Naruto her own rice too.

The moment Naruto ate, Kakashi came back in a poof of smoke.

"You three!" he shouted. "You broke the rules now prepare for punishment, any last words?" The sky turned dark as Kakashi-sensei flared his chakra.

"B-b-but" said Naruto "you said be a team, and that's why these two-"

"We're a three-man team," said Sasuke.

"Right!" Shouted Sakura "we are three as one!"

"That's right!" shouted Naruto.

"Three as one huh? Well then…You pass !" said Kakashi, smiling through his mask, the dark atmosphere immediately disappeared with a puff of smoke.

"EH! Pass? Why?" asked Sakura.

"You three are the first. All the past groups I've had just did as I told them, they were just morons that's why I've never passed a single team before. You see, a ninja must see underneath the underneath. In the world of ninja those who break rules are scum but those who don't take care of their friend are even worse scum." said Kakashi.

' _Thank Ninja God'_ Sasuke thought.

"The training ends here everyone passes. The 7th group will begin training tomorrow…" he stopped and turned to Sasuke. "Umm, Sasuke by any chance, when you stabbed me in the shoulder earlier, was that senbon poisoned?"

Sasuke blinked, then looked at him guiltily.

"Well shit, my arm is going numb," he said.

"Sasuke you know how to use poisons" Sakura gasped.

Sasuke quickly handed over an antidote, "lots of medical ninja use poisons. If you know how to take out poison and make an antidote it helps for if your team gets poisoned." he said.

Normally Iruka-sensei helped him find herbs and plants for his poisons but he supposed from now on he would have to do it himself, if only he had a poison plant garden separate to his medicine plant garden.

They left Naruto tied to the stump as they walked off.

* * *

I don't actually hate Sakura that much. I just hated her at the start. She is fine when she isn't being a fangirl but unfortunately that is most of the time. I think at the start they are all pretty annoying though, Naruto is too loud, Sakura is a fangirl, Sasuke is waaay to emo. They'll grow out of it eventually.


	3. Becoming a better Ninja

Enjoy~

* * *

The next few weeks Team 7 worked out a training system. They spent several hours on the training fields before starting a mission, then once they were done Sasuke spent most days at the hospital, unless they decided to train more afterwards.

As official Genin it was up to Kakashi-sensei to train them every day, but unfortunately, Kakashi-sensei was always very, very late.

To begin with they just stood around waiting for him, but they just slowly became more and more annoyed. Then Naruto suggested that they could just start without him rather than wasting their time so they began to spar against each other until Kakashi turned up.

In Kakashi's defence, he was actually late from doing something important for once, after their self-introductions the other day, he had asked Iruka for information on his now former students. He had never expected and Uchiha to be a medical ninja so he wasn't very prepared to train one, so from Iruka's advice he went to the hospital to have a talk with Iyashi.

Apparently Sasuke spent a lot of time shadowing doctors at the hospital and practicing the simple academy level medical training such as diagnosis and even some of the D rank jutsu such as supplying oxygen, although Iyashi had commented that Sasuke wasn't very good at jutsu for cases like hypothermia, mostly because he heated people up too much and gave them a fever instead. (He commented that it was probably due to the Uchiha clan being good at fire jutsu, luckily, they wouldn't need it on many missions).

And so, he finally turned up at the training field with more knowledge on what Sasuke knew as a medical ninja. Now he just had to see what the other two could do.

He quickly learned that Naruto didn't know how to use almost any of the basic jutsu properly, and although Sakura was very capable of everything at academic level she wasn't very strong and needed practice with taijutsu.

Kakashi surveyed his students with a sigh, "We'll start by making sure you are all good at the basics, mostly for Naruto's benefit" he said.

He turned to look at Sasuke, "You've obviously trained with someone very capable in taijutsu" he said.

"I train with some other Genin, and one of them is a taijutsu specialist" replied Sasuke.

"Good, then after the basics we can work on your medical ninjutsu" Kakashi smiled.

"I don't get what's so important about basics, Ninja who know super powerful jutsu don't need them" muttered Naruto unhappily.

"If you know the basics you will always have a strong foundation you can fight with" stated Sakura. Kakashi noted that she could use all the basic jutsu perfectly, but didn't seem to use anything more than that…

"Well," said Kakashi "I'm sure with practice Naruto will be just as good as Sakura and Sasuke, then we can start on the super powerful jutsu you want to learn."

Naruto glared at Sasuke and muttered about how he would become Hokage and be the best in the village, but he let Kakashi instruct him on how to use the transformation technique for more than just his harem jutsu.

Sakura and Sasuke also went through the academy level jutsu for a while but since they knew how to use them already Kakashi-sensei let them leave so he could focus on Naruto. (who was incredibly annoyed and upset that he had to have extra training because Sasuke was so much better than him.)

Since they'd finished early, Sasuke decided to go to the hospital. Now that he was a Genin, Iyashi-Sensei seemed to finally accept his progress. Therefore, he was officially apprenticed at the hospital, this meant he could now help properly with patients and learn to do things himself. Which helped a lot with experience, especially since he was allowed to properly diagnose and check patients for injuries now.

Whenever Naruto or Sakura were injured in training Kakashi-sensei made sure he helped them in any medical way he could.

However, their missions weren't exactly dangerous, at least not enough for anyone to need medical help. Since they were only Genin, they could only take the D rank missions. And honestly, most of their missions were catching the same damn cat over and over. Well… At least it was a good way to make money.

"I AM NOT CATCHING THAT DAMN DEMON CAT AGAIN" shouted Naruto pointing at Kakashi-sensei in an over the top pose.

"These are the D rank missions Naruto, they're here to get you experience" stated Kakashi, they'd had this argument several times already.

"What experience am I getting? And why am I the only one getting scratched up!" complained Naruto.

"Relax, I told you, it's good to practice the basics," Kakashi replied. "Besides, it's good practice for Sasuke."

"EH!? What is he even practicing! Healing little cat scratches isn't even ninja stuff! If Sasuke's always just going to sit in the back to patch people up then that's fine with me, I'll show everyone how powerful I am!" he shouted, looking happier again.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and walked off, they were done with their mission now anyway, and he preferred practicing away from the idiots on his team.

Sakura punched Naruto on the head, "don't be so rude!" she hissed.

"Ow Sakura-chan" whined Naruto.

"Don't mock medical-nin Naruto, it's a very difficult occupation and Konoha could always do with more, opponents will always aim for medics first, and most field medics wind up dead" said Kakashi.

Naruto rubbed the forming lump on his head, "Then why be one?" he asked.

"He wants to," Kakashi shrugged, "remember Naruto, when there is a medic on your team they are what is keeping you and your teammates alive, a medic is an invaluable ally, you should protect him."

Naruto gave Kakashi-sensei a look of utmost confusion, "why would I want to protect that teme" he muttered, walking off by himself. Kakashi left to take the mission report to the Hokage tower and Sakura sighed as she was left behind.

Despite Naruto's constant complaints about how easy the missions were and how he deserved a harder one, Sasuke was fine with the easier missions as long as he could continue to train in his own time. He started doing harder training with Tenten and Lee and found a nice place to plant poisonous herbs in the Uchiha district… he just had to buy some seeds and plant them so he could make his own poisons to use in a fight.

Besides, Genin generally got D rank missions anyway and they had only just become ninja. Many people came from all around to Konoha to fill in a mission request. Since they were Genin it would be rare for them to get anything other than D rank missions, perhaps a C rank now and again but they would need to become Chunin before doing proper C rank or B rank missions.

They continued their training together until Naruto couldn't take the D rank missions anymore and complained to the Hokage. They were rewarded with a C rank mission due only to Naruto's constant whining and arguing that he needed a better mission to show how good he was at being a ninja. Of course, Iruka shouted at them, they needed more experience for a higher mission, but this mission was only a simple escort for a man who wanted to return to the Country of Waves. So, the Hokage let them go.

Although, Tazuna the bridge builder they were protecting was rather annoyed to see that they were only children.

"Alright team, go pack for a mission and we'll meet at the village gate in 30 minutes" said Kakashi.

They all left and Sasuke quickly went to the hospital to tell Iyashi-sensei he was leaving the village on a mission.

He asked if he could borrow some poisons and antidotes and Iyashi-sensei told him he could but he would have to start growing his own poison plants soon. Sasuke nodded.

The poisons he borrowed from Iyashi-sensei were usually just poisons that would numb the body over time or cause slight paralysis, he couldn't use poison that could actually kill someone until he was sure he could get the antidote right every time… or it would be too dangerous for him to carry around.

Apparently, a lot of ninja accidently stabbed themselves while coating a senbon or kunai in poison.

Besides, he had only started making poisons when he started shadowing Iyashi-sensei at the hospital, so he usually didn't make anything without Iyashi-sensei being there. He was actually nervous to get it wrong but he supposed it was time for him to start doing stuff on his own. He was a Genin now after all.

He hurried over to Tenten's parents' weapon shop to tell Tenten that he couldn't train with her because he was leaving on a mission.

"You should invite your team to train with us when you come back" smiled Tenten, "I'm sure they could use the speed training more than you at this point" she winked.

Sasuke nodded, although he could already tell that Sakura and Naruto were far slower than he was and much worse at dodging. He wondered if they would be capable of Tenten's intense training schemes.

He joined up with the others and the village gate. Naruto was already jumping up and down in anticipation and shouting "Let's gooooooooo."

He checked his pack while they waited for Sakura to arrive, He had stocked up on senbon, poisons, antidotes and bandages. He put some chakra infused ointment in his pouch with a few other things, and as usual he had spare things sealed away in his arm warmers too. He really couldn't thank Tenten enough for showing him how to store medical supplies in scrolls like she did with her weapons.

"Ne, Sasuke" Kakashi waved for him to come over.

Sasuke sighed and gave his sensei a questioning look as he was guided away from the loud mouth Naruto.

"I want you to treat this as a proper mission now, since you are the medical ninja you shouldn't be fighting in the front line," said Kakashi, "it's only a C rank mission so Naruto, Sakura and I will be able to deal with any bandits or thieves, you just stay back, avoid, and make sure we stay alive" He smiled brightly and returned to the others, Sakura had just arrived so they were ready to go.

Sasuke sighed, staying back and healing was fine, but could Naruto and Sakura really deal with things themselves? If he had to stop those two idiots from getting killed it would probably mean putting himself in harm's way… maybe if he had more faith in their abilities it would be better, but… Ahhh they needed more team training, he sighed again.

Iyashi-sensei told him that medical ninja did have ways of fighting, such as with his senbon or poisons but since medical ninja could be the difference between a successful and a failed mission they should ONLY fight in self-defence and never be the first to engage a fight.

That didn't stop him from training though, Lee helped him a lot with his taijutsu but he needed to learn jutsu that he could do from further away. Right now, the only long range jutsu he knew was his grand fireball jutsu, but at least he'd been training with it since he was seven, so he could use it very well.

Naruto ran ahead looking excited and Sakura was making nervous conversation with the bridge builder they had to protect as they began walking away from the village.

"So you're from the land of the waves? Kakashi-sensei do they have ninja in that country too?" she asked curiously.

Kakashi replied, "No, not in the wave country, most ninja appear in hidden villages, such as our country is the fire country but our village is the hidden village of the leaf. There is also lightning country, earth country and wind country and they each have their own hidden villages. That's why we are known as the five great shinobi countries and they are run by the 5 great kages, the Hokage, Mizukage, Raikage, Kazekage and Tsuchikage" lectured Kakashi as they walked. "But on a C mission there won't be any enemy ninja" he said.

A few moment later, enemy ninja rushed out of a puddle of water and took down Kakashi with metal chains they had hanging between them.

"Kakashi-sensei!" shouted Naruto. The ninja appeared behind him and Naruto visibly froze.

' _Shit'_ Sasuke thought. Pulling out a shuriken and throwing it at the ninja as they went for Naruto, he caught the middle of the chains slamming them against a tree. They looked pissed but Naruto was still frozen up.

' _Damnit'_ he thought, the enemies quickly moved around and charged straight towards Sakura and the bridge builder. Sakura, pulled out a kunai and put herself in front of Tazuna to defend him, ' _Sakura can't deal with this guy on her own she'll get killed, Naruto will just have to deal with the other one'_ he thought, quickly pulling out a senbon and putting himself in front of her.

Then Kakashi was back.

He grabbed both the enemy ninja quickly and tied them up with little trouble.

' _What the fuck was he doing?'_ Sasuke thought, ' _he didn't even try to help_. _He just used the body replacement technique then hid himself so he could look cool. What a show off._ '

"Naruto sorry for not helping out right way," said Kakashi, "I wanted to see who these guys were attacking. I got you hurt I didn't think you wouldn't be able to move."

Naruto looked like the world just crumbled away.

"Good job Sakura, but Sasuke I told you not to put yourself in dangers way" he scolded.

Sasuke sighed, "You said that, but I didn't want them to kill Naruto or Sakura" he muttered.

Naruto looked at him furiously, _'it's not my fault you froze up'_ Sasuke thought.

"Remember what I said~ stay back and let your teammates fight" Kakashi said brightly. He checked over the enemy ninja and tied them to a tree, inspecting their weapons slowly.

"Sasuke, the enemy ninja have poison on their nails, Naruto got hit so we need to take the poison out right away. You should extract the poison and see if you can make an antidote." Kakashi said, then turned to Tazuna, "And we need to have a talk Tazuna–san. These two are Chunin from the hidden mist, if they have been sent to attack you then this isn't a C rank mission, it's more like a B or A rank" he said sternly.

Sasuke pulled out a scalpel and approached Naruto who started shaking his head "I don't need his help" he protested.

"Naruto don't move or the poison will spread and we will have to return to the village. Let Sasuke deal with it and we can carry on" Kakashi said.

Of course, he planned to make sure Sasuke did it properly but it would be good practice for him to remove poison from someone's wounds correctly, since the appropriate jutsu to do it was too high level. Besides, they didn't really know what kind of poison was used so they couldn't administer an antidote yet anyway.

Sasuke approached.

Naruto was glaring at him, "I don't need it" he shouted, then pulled out a kunai, holding it high before stabbing himself in the hand where he was wounded, blood gushed out of the wound and Naruto did a victory pose.

Kakashi looked unimpressed. "Naruto that's nice and all that you got rid of the poison so spiritedly but now Sasuke is going to have to heal you before you die from losing too much blood 3." He said calmly.

Naruto turned pale. "No, no, no, no, no, no, I can't die like this" he shouted waving his hand around.

"Naruto you have a self-abusing personality" muttered Sakura.

Sasuke sighed, ' _this idiot was just so…'_

He smacked Naruto on the head then grabbed his hand, the wound didn't seem to be too deep it was as though it was healing itself already. He quickly brought chakra into his hands and cleansed them by using the appropriate hand sign for kiyomaru. Then he used Ketsuki Gyouko (Blood Coagulation) to stop the bleeding.

"It's fine, but I guess we should clean up the blood," Sasuke sighed, the wound looked healed now but he couldn't see properly due to the blood that seemed to be drying way too fast for a normal person, did Naruto have a bloodline limit or something?

Kakashi nodded and helped him remove the excess blood and check Naruto hadn't infected the wound by using a dirty kunai or something stupid before he bandaged it.

It wouldn't need any medical ointment or more healing, it seemed that Naruto had crazy heal speed. Naruto was just gaping at him in shock throughout.

"Sasuke, I didn't know you knew how to use Ketsuki Gyouko already" Kakashi mused.

"Well, my sensei at the hospital showed me how to use it after I became a Genin but I haven't really practiced with it properly yet… no one tends to be injured that much" Sasuke muttered.

"You used it well," Kakashi nodded, he hadn't expected him to know how to coagulate blood, it seemed he had very good chakra control for a newly turned Genin.

Once he got better at what he knew he would probably be ready to try some Chunin level medical jutsu.

"Ahh… good job Sasuke-kun" said Sakura, "but… if this mission is above C rank then isn't it too difficult for us? We should just quit and have a more experienced ninja protect Tazuna-san" she said.

Naruto seemed to come back to life "NO WAY" he shouted. "We're doing this mission!

"It should be alright" said Kakashi, "I'll take care of anything too difficult and we just need to get Tazuna-san to the land of waves… what happens to him after isn't our job" he said giving a paled Tazuna an evil look.

They continued walking after sending a message to the village that there was enemy ninja that needed to be picked up.

"Ne Sasuke…" Naruto muttered as they walked through the forest.

Sasuke looked at him curiously. The dobe never spoke to him if he could help it.

"Thanks, dattebayo…" he muttered. Sasuke just nodded in acknowledgment, truthfully Naruto's wound had practically healed itself already... which was surprising, considering the way he stabbed it like an idiot.

Naruto continued to stare at the bandage on his hand intently.

They knew when they had arrived in the Country of Waves because they could barely see past their noses through the mist, they got on a boat and rode across the water towards the town on the other side.

"We should be able to see the bridge soon" said the rower.

"AHH IT'S HUGE" shouted Naruto.

"Quiet, we're using the mist to get across quietly that's why I'm rowing instead of using the engine! We'll be in deep trouble if Gatoh finds us" the rower snapped.

"But rower-san" whined Naruto, "it's way too quiet out here. I know, we could fill the silence with a sing-a-long or something, no one would hear us through this fog anyway."

Sasuke bit his lip to stop himself commenting on Naruto's logic.

"Or, we could find some answers" said Kakashi, turning to Tazuna and leaving Naruto to hum to himself, "before we get to the pier there is something I need to ask you, tell us. Who is after you, and why are they after you?" Kakashi asked, "If you can't answer then we will call the mission off when we get to shore."

Tazuna explained to them his story about the man after him. Gatoh, one of the richest men in the world, mainly due to his drug dealing and other illegal trades. He controlled the country of the wave through money and violence and so didn't want the bridge to be complete as it would be an obstacle for him.

He was too poor to afford to pay for a B rank or above mission. And would probably be ambushed on his way home.

Kakashi sighed as Tazuna told them a sob story of his 10-year-old grandson who would cry if he died, and his daughter who would live a sad life hating Konoha ninja if they left him to die on the road.

"I guess we will continue escorting you then" Kakashi said.

"That's good to hear" said Tazuna with a smug look.

They carried on with Naruto humming a song under his breath to fill the silence. They finally got to a large wall and went underneath. The village on the other side wasn't foggy at all, Sasuke wondered how it could be so misty on one side of a wall and so clear on the other.

They walked through the woods to take the bridge builder home.

Naruto decided he had to prove himself as being capable to make up for freezing earlier and began randomly throwing kunai every time he thought he sensed something.

Kakashi scolded him but he carried on anyway. Sakura hit him when he almost hit a rabbit.

"But I really did sense something" he whined.

"Everyone duck" Kakashi shouted as a blade spun at them from the trees.

A new ninja landed on the blade, he seemed to be trying to look cool because he didn't even turn to look at them. Naruto looked super excited.

"Ohh aren't you Momochi Zabuza, the exiled ninja of the Hidden Mist?" Kakashi asked, slowly approaching the enemy.

Sasuke held up three senbon in his hand and moved to defend the bridge builder, this guy was fast, he was obviously far better than they were. With luck Kakashi could deal with him.

Naruto ran forward and pulled out some kunai. He wanted to fight but Kakashi stopped him.

"This guy's different from the guys before, stay back, work together and protect Tazuna-san" he said quietly. "If he's our enemy. I will have to be serious." He lifted his headband to reveal a Sharingan in his left eye.

' _Wait what?!_ " Sasuke thought, Kakashi wasn't part of the Uchiha clan? How could he have the kekkei genkai?! Only an Uchiha could have the Sharingan blood line limit.

"Protect Tazuna," said Kakashi "and don't join me in battle."

"Oh, I'm honoured I get to see the Sharingan I've heard so much about." mused Zabuza.

"Eeh Sharingan? What's that?" asked Naruto, looking at Kakashi's red eye with three black comma shapes in it.

' _I don't understand he isn't part of my clan, how could he have it?'_ Sasuke thought.

He explained to the others, "the Sharingan. People who use it's doujutsu are said to have eye powers that can see through all genjutsu, taijutsu, and ninjutsu and cancel their effects. But the Sharingan possesses a lot of other abilities too."

"Correct," cut off Zabuza "and one thing the Sharingan can do is understand how to use an opponent's attacks against them. When I was in the hidden village of the mist, your face was in a bingo book I carried. It also noted this: the man who copied more than 1000 techniques. Kakashi the copy ninja."

"Wow!" shouted Naruto. "You never told us you were famous!"

Kakashi looked unimpressed, the one bad thing about being a good enough ninja to get into a bingo book was people knew his abilities before meeting him.

The whole area began to be filled with mist and Zabuza disappeared from their sight. "Be careful, in the Village of Hidden Mist he is known for his silent killing techniques. Using the mist to his advantage." Kakashi warned them.

They lost sight of Kakashi, and heard Zabuza talking over them from somewhere. _'Damn'_ thought Sasuke, they had no way of defending against someone they couldn't see. ' _How could they defend Tazuna in such a fight against two Jonins?'_

Kakashi activated his chakra suddenly and the mist dispersed around him. "Don't worry guys, I'll protect the three of you with my life" said Kakashi. "I won't let anyone on my team die."

Zabuza appeared in the middle of them. And Kakashi jumped forward to attack.

Zabuza burst into water, "a water clone" gasped Sakura.

"Sensei behind you" shouted Naruto.

' _Ehh Kakashi also used a water clone!'_ Sasuke thought as the Kakashi in front of them turned to water upon being stabbed.

Kakashi seemed to have the upper hand against Zabuza right now, but that quickly changed when he jumped in the water and ended up trapped in a water prison technique.

He couldn't get out of the water sphere he was trapped in as long as Zabuza kept his arm in it to connect his chakra.

Zabuza created a clone to kill the bridge builder.

"If it's just a clone we can take it" said Naruto, still wanting to fight. However, he was proven wrong very quickly.

Damnit we got separated, Sasuke thought as he was slammed against the ground and Naruto got kicked back into a tree.

"Take Tazuna-san and run" shouted Kakashi from the water bubble.

' _Well that's not an option, if we run now he will follow and we will die. We have to fight together if we want to win'_ Sasuke thought.

Naruto seemed to be standing around having flashbacks or something while staring at the bandage around his hand.

Then he charged in shouting.

"Naruto what are you thinking!" Shouted Sakura.

"Naruto! At least use your shadow clones" said Sasuke, he and Sakura would have to protect the bridge builder.

Naruto smirked widely, "put this in your bingo book, the next man who will become Hokage, the Konoha ninja, Uzumaki Naruto! Sasuke help me out here I have a plan."

"Alright" Sasuke sighed, if Naruto had a plan he thought could work then it was worth a shot, they were dead if they didn't do anything anyway.

Kakashi shouted at them again. "Our mission is to protect Tazuna do you forget that now?"

"What do you think old man?" Said Naruto, turning to the bridge builder.

"Don't worry I caused this in the first place I won't say I want to survive, you guys fight as much as you want." Tazuna replied.

Kakashi looked beyond pissed in his bubble of water and shouted again, "You don't understand, the village of the Hidden Mist is much rougher than Konoha. 10 years ago, the graduation exam was a fight to the death among the students! This only changed when Momochi Zabuza the devil of the Hidden Mist killed over 100 students. You have to run."

"That sure was fun" mused Zabuza. "And now you're too late" he shouted running forward.

"If you have a plan Naruto, do it now" shouted Sakura, "Sasuke and I will back you up!"

Naruto growled activating his shadow clones and surrounding Zabuza's clone.

The clones were easily thrown off but Naruto shouted "Sasuke!" and threw a large shuriken to him as the clones dispersed.

Sasuke caught it, it was heavier than a normal shuriken… no it wasn't a shuriken at all.

"I see. Then... Fuuma shuriken, the shadow windmill!" he said, using body flicker to get himself higher in the air, he thought of Tenten, she used giant shuriken like this often. So, if he threw it the same way she did but with his own shuriken in the shadows his aim should be fine. He threw it hard at the real Zabuza.

Zabuza caught the first shuriken then leaped the second shadow shuriken, only to get almost stabbed with a kunai when the shuriken turned into the real Naruto. It made him drop the water prison and Kakashi stood up ready to get back in the fight.

"Kakashi-sensei!" shouted Naruto.

"Naruto your plan was impressive you have grown already." said Kakashi staring at Zabuza.

"I used the shadow replication to hide the fact I turned into a fumma shuriken not to actually hit Zabuza." Naruto grinned. "Then Sasuke used his own shuriken to use the shadow shuriken technique."

"It was just luck" said Sasuke. It was Naruto that came up with the plan he just threw things.

He had seen Tenten throw fuuma shuriken a lot and had even seen it with his Sharingan so he knew how to do it himself accurately enough. It sure was useful being friends with both a weapons specialist and a taijutsu specialist.

"Sakura let's protect Tazuna" he said and they watched Kakashi-sensei fight.

It was a great battle, but just as Kakashi was about to win there was a new masked ninja in the trees who threw their own senbon into Zabuza's neck with a large amount of force.

"Who the hell are you?!" shouted Naruto at the new person.

"Calm down he's not an enemy" replied Kakashi, the ninja jumped down and inspected Zabuza's body.

"B-but Zabuza was killed by this kid who looks my age! and now we look like idiots! I can't accept this!" shouted Naruto

"I will take him now" the ninja said and disappeared.

Kakashi soothed Naruto, after all in this world there were many kids stronger than Konoha genin, and even stronger than Konoha jounin. Naruto was furious but Sasuke was just glad that the battle was over, worrying about his teammates dying all the time was stressful.

Of course, Kakashi-sensei collapsed immediately afterwards, so that wasn't great.

"Ahh! What happened!" gasped Naruto running over.

Sasuke kneeled next to him, he didn't appear badly wounded but he obviously passed out from something...

"I think he used too much chakra" said Sasuke, he had seen it happen before in the hospital when patients used too much chakra and had to stay in the hospital until they replenished it.

"We just have to wait for him to wake up again…" he continued, he didn't really have anything to replenish someone's chakra… Iyashi-sensei had made chakra pills for it before but he wasn't going to use them unless he learned how to make them himself, he didn't really know much about soldier pills but he knew they had consequences to eating them when you didn't absolutely need them.

He bandaged his own wounds from the fight and gave Naruto his medical ointment to take care of himself. Sakura was unharmed…

Then Tazuna helped them carry Kakashi to his house. Luckily it wasn't so far away.

"Stand back" he said removing a scroll from his arm warmers and laying it on the ground. He quickly unsealed it and a medical case appeared. Naruto and Sakura made astonished noises behind him.

"Ahhh what's that! How did you do that?" Naruto was gasping while Sakura said "you know how to do sealing and unsealing jutsu already" in amazement. Tenten used them all the time for her weapons, although the ones she used were far more complicated than what he knew.

"Sealing jutsu? what's that?" asked Naruto, Sasuke decided to ignore them,

Sakura explained "We were taught about it in the academy, but we weren't shown how to actually do it. With a sealing jutsu you can seal equipment and other things in a separate space and then summon them forward through a scroll or paper that has the sealing jutsu mark on it."

"Eh" shouted Naruto. "So, I can put a sealing mark on some instant ramen and summon it from anywhere!"

Sakura glared at him, "there are limitations, if you seal something you need the same scroll to unseal it, you can't just redraw the sealing mark and summon it from anywhere. Besides, why would you want to summon ramen..."

Sasuke snorted, obviously, Naruto would be thinking about food.

He took his time dealing with Kakashi-sensei now he was on a futon and they weren't in danger from more enemy ninja.

Kakashi likely wasn't going to be able to move for a while, maybe using the Sharingan used up too much chakra. He pulled out a few thin senbon and used them to acupuncture in specific muscles that he knew would make it easier for Kakashi-sensei to move around when he woke up. A lot of his muscles had tensed up significantly… perhaps it was a side effect from using all his chakra. Now that he thought about it Iyashi-sensei often did acupuncture or prescribed massages to ninja that used too much chakra on a mission, it was probably a side effect that made all their muscles stiff.

"Sasuke!" shouted Naruto behind him.

"What?" he asked.

"Show me how to use a sealing jutsu" commanded Naruto.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "later" he said, "or ask Kakashi when he wakes up."

Naruto pouted at him. "Isn't it rude to stick needles into someone when they're unconscious" he huffed.

"I'll stick some needles in you while you're awake and you can tell me what's considered worse" he replied.

Naruto glared at him for a while.

"When's Kakashi-sensei going to wake up" asked Sakura sadly, breaking the silence.

"Hopefully soon but it depends how much chakra he used" Sasuke replied. He removed the needles after a while. Kakashi would still be stiff but he could probably help out more when Kakashi was awake and could help point out where he felt soreness in his body. He didn't really know all the muscle groups by heart… although he did try his best to.

He knew how to add small amounts of chakra to relieve pain and relax muscles or sprains but he hadn't really used it much, Iruka-sensei had taught him about it in the academy, it was one of the things medical ninjas were supposed to learn after all. When Kakashi woke up maybe it would be a good time to practice.

* * *

Am I progressing too fast? FML.  
Thanks to those who have reviewed~ I wish there were more Sasuke medical ninja stories out there...


	4. How to be a Good Team

I keep going between calling jutsu by their English name and their Japanese name. I should probably keep it more constant… :/

* * *

CHAPTER 4

"Ah Sensei's awake!" said Sakura, "The Sharingan seems to be really amazing but it puts a lot of strain on the body, I don't think you should use it for a while."

"ughh, I'm sorry" muttered Kakashi.

"But you defeated such a strong ninja, we should be okay for while" Tazuna laughed loudly, they were sat around Kakashi's futon, but Kakashi-sensei didn't look very happy.

"I wonder who that boy in the mask was" Sakura said, "he seemed strong."

Kakashi sighed, "From the outfit I assume they were a special squad from the hidden mist ANBU division, they are known to erase all evidence of a ninja being alive so that the body won't give away village secrets. For example, if I die my sharingan would be examined and could potentially be stolen by an enemy ninja." he lectured.

"So, he didn't want us to steal any secrets from Zabuza's body" said Sasuke.

"…I suppose" said Kakashi, but he looked troubled.

"Are you alright sensei?" asked Naruto

"Yes, I was just thinking… Sasuke, did you see the senbon in Zabuza's neck?" He asked.

"…not up close" replied Sasuke

"Do you think it was aimed carefully enough to kill him?" asked Kakashi

"Well… It's hard to kill people with senbon unless you put in enough force, and you need to be one hundred percent accurate. For most people using senbon it would be more likely to put someone into a near death state instead…" he said, _'I'm sure I wouldn't be accurate enough to kill someone with my senbon unless I was right next to them, and I've been training for a long time. The boy from earlier had thrown them from a great distance… Oh, that's why Kakashi-sensei is worried.'_

"As I thought, Zabuza is still alive" Kakashi said.

"EHHH" shouted Sakura and Naruto.

"Well, if you think about it, when using senbon you can never be sure since the fatality rate is low unless you aim the hit perfectly," said Kakashi, "and normally I believe he would have destroyed Zabuza's corpse immediately instead of moving it"

"Why didn't you tell us that before" demanded Sakura.

Kakashi looked nonplussed, "I was a bit busy passing out" he replied.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto, he looked far too excited about Zabuza still being alive.

"Sensei, how are you going to train to defeat him, Sasuke-kun said you may not be able to move for a while" asked Sakura.

Kakashi laughed, "I'm going to put you guys through some training."

"But us training isn't going to be helpful!" exclaimed Sakura. "If you, a Sharingan user had trouble with him what chance do we have!"

Kakashi sat up slowly and ignored Sasuke's glares, "And who saved me when I got caught? You three have grown so much already. And you in particular Naruto, have grown the most," he said smiling at Naruto who beamed.

Tazuna's grandson then ran into the room.

Sasuke moved closer to Kakashi and spoke to him quietly while ignoring the small boy, "I can probably help you to move easier, but it might take me a while" he said.

"Oh? I thought I was moving easier than I usually do when I overuse my Sharingan, was that your doing?"

"I just did some acupuncture…" he said.

"Then you can help me get better while Naruto and Sakura train" he said.

"EHHH" shouted Naruto, who had only heard the last part. "Why doesn't he have to train?" He pointed at Sasuke indignantly.

"Well, we'll see" Kakashi said smiling.

"Ne, Ne, I want to learn sealing techniques" said Naruto.

"Sealing?" asked Kakashi.

"Yeah, like what Sasuke did with his stuff" replied Naruto bouncing up and down on the balls of his feel.

"Sasuke seals medical supplies because there is too much to carry around normally Naruto, I don't believe you would have much use for them" he replied.

Naruto glared at him, "Sasuke knows how to seal things already…" he said pouting.

"… How about I teach you once this mission is over" sighed Kakashi, he had Sakura and Sasuke help stand and used crutches since his body still wasn't moving properly.

"Let's go" he said.

"Already? Shouldn't you rest more?" asked Sakura, she glanced at Sasuke as if he should be stopping their sensei.

"He's fine, he just can't move easily" replied Sasuke. "as long as he doesn't use the Sharingan again until he is recovered."

The Sharingan itself puts a lot of strain on a person's chakra but Kakashi hadn't reached his chakra limit yet, he was just exhausted from the actual strain, not from chakra depletion.

They followed Kakashi out to the forest. Where he lectured them on Chakra control.

Sakura joined in when Naruto obviously didn't understand how chakra was used. In fact he wasn't even sure what it was and kept called it Katra instead of chakra.

"Really Naruto" scolded Sakura, "what did you learn in school?"

Naruto laughed nervously, "I used to sleep during the hard classes."

"No wonder you always put too much chakra into everything" sighed Sasuke.

Naruto whipped around to shout at him but Kakashi cut him off.

"I'll put it simply, chakra requires: your body energy, that is in each of the billion cells in your body, and spiritual energy, that is gained through training and experience. I hope that you at least know that you release chakra in your jutsu by using hand seals… We're going to learn how to control chakra now with your body, since Naruto is so terrible at it." said Kakashi.

"What are we going to do?" asked Naruto excitedly.

"Climb a tree," replied Kakashi.

"Ehhhh? climb a tree?" shouted Naruto.

"Sasuke, I'm assuming you have already done the tree climbing exercise" he said. Sasuke nodded in confirmation, since he started working at the hospital Iyashi-sensei had also shown him the water walking exercise, and ways to meditate while channelling your chakra to get used to the flow of control. He hadn't mastered walking on water yet, but he could do it if you counted sinking slowly.

Kakashi did a demonstration for Naruto and Sakura and walked up the tree.

"Something like this is only possible if you use your chakra perfectly. Something that Sasuke is already accustomed with in his training to be a medical ninja, now I want to see how you two do" he said.

"Hmph, too much chakra huh?" muttered Naruto, he channelled chakra too his feet along with Sakura.

"As I thought" Kakashi said as Naruto took a few steps up the tree then collapsed from using too little chakra.

On the other hand, Sakura got far up the tree on the first try, "Sakura train a little more then you will be done, Naruto you have to train the hardest as it seems you are the one furthest behind in moulding and using your chakra" he said.

Naruto looked pissed.

Kakashi and Sasuke stuck around for a while watching them practice, since there wasn't much else for him to do Sasuke spent some time reading about muscle groups so he could help Kakashi recover faster, he had a lot of books sealed away just in case he needed to look something up on a mission.

He looked over at Naruto, he kept switching between too much chakra and destroying the tree bark and too little chakra.

Sakura burned out after a while but Naruto kept trying.

Sasuke sighed, there was still one thing he was curious about.

"Kakashi-sensei… I was wondering if you could show me how to use the Sharingan." He asked.

"Oh?" Kakashi said, but he didn't sound very surprised.

"I don't understand it; how do you have the Sharingan when you aren't part of the Uchiha clan?" Sasuke questioned

Kakashi sighed, "I'm afraid that's a story I will have to tell you another day. Although, no one told me Sharingan had activated already" he said.

"I… I try to use it when I practice with Lee and Tenten, it helps to try and copy Lee's speed, but sometimes I can't seem to activate it at all…" he said.

"Ah I see, then you want to know how to use it, and copy things easier I suppose?" asked Kakashi

"Iyashi-sensei once said that he thought my Sharingan would be a great asset to being a medical ninja, but I don't know what he meant. I want to find out." Sasuke said.

"Ahhh, that's true, a great deal of abilities come with the Sharingan, you can see fast movements with ease, copy people's jutsu or movements like I do. That might make it easier to do difficult medical techniques… Yes, it would certainly help you… alright then, while Naruto climbs trees let's see what we can do with your Sharingan, you can help me recover in the meantime too" Kakashi smiled. "First we'll just work on activating it though."

"Right" Sasuke said.

"Well then let's get started," he smiled.

They left the other two to train, Naruto seemed to be asking Sakura for advice when they left.

The next week consisted of Sakura keeping an eye on Tazuna while Naruto trained to climb a tree and Sasuke practiced both healing and using his Sharingan. Since it took small levels of chakra to do the healing and much larger to practice his Sharingan he mostly listened to Kakashi talk about it while he worked on Kakashi's muscles. Before long Kakashi was able to move just fine again and they sparred a little with their Sharingan.

Naruto only came home to eat, then ran straight off to the woods again. He seemed to be getting more and more annoyed over trees as the days went by.

One night Tazuna told them about his grandson and Kaiza, the hero of the village.

Naruto really seemed to take Inari's story to heart. He gave a speech that there were heroes in the world and that he would prove it.

In the end, Naruto was gone for 3 days straight.

"Sasuke-kun, where are you going?" asked Sakura over breakfast.

"Naruto's been gone too long, I'm going to go see if he's dead" replied Sasuke.

He walked out to the forest, Naruto appeared to be talking to a woman (cough Haku cough). But as he approached she got up and walked away.

Naruto was muttering to himself as he approached something about men looking pretty. He smacked him on the head

"Did you forget about eating you idiot?" He asked.

"Ow," Naruto said, "Ne Sasuke, you've already done this training, right? I bet I can get higher than you!" he challenged.

Sasuke sighed and joined Naruto for a while. Naruto wasn't terrible at it, be needed a constant amount of chakra in his feet and he kept losing it.

"You need to mould and control the right amount of chakra, find the balance and keep it the same" he sighed, if there was one thing he knew it was chakra.

"I AM!" shouted Naruto.

"…no you're not" replied Sasuke.

"NE, SHOW ME!" demanded Naruto.

He ran up the tree easily and stopped on a high branch, Naruto cursed and worked harder to catch up to where he was.

"Naruto! Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called. "It's past lunch time already"

"Ah Sakura-chan" shouted Naruto, he started showing off to Sakura and Kakashi but ended up falling off the tree like an idiot. Sasuke quickly ran across the tree and caught him by the foot.

"You idiot. I told you to find the balance and keep it there," he muttered "you dropped your chakra again."

"Ehh?" said Naruto looking up at him, "Oh! I think I get it"

"Way to go Sasuke-kun!" called Sakura in her fangirl voice.

"You've made a lot of progress Naruto" called Kakashi, "maybe Sasuke training with you helped."

And with that said, Sasuke ended up staying with Naruto as he ran up the tree repeatedly, having Sasuke as a goal seemed to help him a lot, occasionally Sasuke wrapped up his injuries for him but Naruto was doing fine as it was.

He helped Naruto get home later, he'd used too much chakra but he finally managed to get to the top of the tree. The idiot.

They went together the next day to the bridge but left Naruto was still sleeping.

The bridge was almost finished when mist surrounded them again.

"Defensive positions" Kakashi said.

"They're shaking how pitiful" muttered Zabuza, surrounding them with clones.

Sasuke smiled "I'm just shaking with excitement," he said and quickly destroyed the water clones, with his senbon.

"Sakura, you may need to fight the masked guy" said Kakashi.

Haku span towards them quickly and Sakura cried out in panic. Sasuke blocked Haku's senbon with his own.

"Damnit, okay Sakura stick to Tazuna, we'll have to let Sasuke deal with him." Said Kakashi.

' _It seemed Sasuke is going to have to fight properly, Naruto isn't here and Sakura isn't fast enough,_ ' thought Kakashi. It was sooooooooooo bad to make the medical ninja fight, and if Tsunade the legendary Sannin were there she would probably murder him for it. But he didn't have much of a choice unless he wanted to go 2 v 1. Sakura wasn't a bad ninja… she just wasn't ready for a fight like this.

"You move well, but now I have occupied one of your hands" said Haku, he made signs with one hand and created ice needles in the air.

Sasuke sent his chakra to his feet in order to move from Haku's ice needle attack and threw senbon at him from afar.

Haku avoided but Sasuke jumped behind him, "not fast enough," he muttered, jamming a poisoned senbon into the guy's shoulder.

Haku jumped back out of the way.

Kakashi cursed, this was the worst situation. He'd spent a while helping Sasuke with his Sharingan and obviously, he was using the speed he'd gained from training with his friends which Kakashi was thankful for, but Sasuke needed to be training in defence as the medical ninja… He was acting more like a front line.

He tried to focus on Zabuza but when Sasuke became trapped in Haku's Crystal Ice Mirror attack he knew he would have to intervene.

Sasuke may be able to dodge normally but he couldn't when he didn't know where the attacks were coming from, the boy named Haku was too fast and it was obvious that he had very high level techniques to be able to move faster than Sasuke could see.

It seemed like both Zabuza and Haku were at least Jonin level.

If he sustained too many injuries it might be too late by the time he got used to the attacks.

Sasuke looked around at the ice mirrors, Haku had vanished again and he was pretty sure he was starting to look like a porcupine with the amount of senbon protruding out of him.

Then Naruto appeared in an over the top puff of smoke and Sasuke was seriously just done with this, why was everyone on his team such show offs.

He pulled out some senbon, he thought Haku would be accurate with his senbon due to the way he put Zabuza in a death like state before… but he hadn't been hit in any fatal places. Sasuke took the opportunity of Naruto's distraction to check his wounds. He would be fine if he could just destroy the damn ice mirrors.

Naruto joined the battle loudly, and tried to use his techniques right in front of everyone, there was a lot of ruckus going on outside of the mirrors but he couldn't see properly.

Haku started moving again, going between the mirrors so fast, it was impossible to see. He got pelted with more senbon. There was no way for him to track the trajectory of the weapon like this.

He would need to activate his Sharingan. It was the only way he would be able to keep up.

' _If he and Naruto could hit the mirrors from both sides at the same time then Haku wouldn't be able to escape them'_ he thought.

Of course, Naruto ruined everything by coming into the mirrors.

"I came to help you!" whispered Naruto.

Sasuke smacked him, "You idiot if you're a ninja be more careful" he cursed.

"What's with that attitude I came to help you! Aren't you supposed to be a medical-nin or whatever! Kakashi-sensei keeps saying you shouldn't be fighting!" Naruto huffed.

"It can't be helped when there's an enemy and you aren't even around!" Hissed Sasuke, "and why did you come into the mirrors! Idiot!"

"Who are you calling idiot! Besides you guys left me behind!" shouted Naruto.

"Damnit, we just have to destroy the mirrors" said Sasuke standing up, "Katon, blazing fireball." He shouted filling the area with fire. The ice stayed, it didn't even melt damnit!

"That didn't work at all" whined Naruto. Sasuke glared at him.

"It won't melt with that kind of firepower," said Haku, he turned to the direction Haku's voice came from and activated his Sharingan, but before he could react they both got pelted with senbon.

Sasuke reflected a few, Damn, he was able to see the weapons with his Sharingan but he couldn't see Haku throwing them.

"Shadow bunshin no jutsu" shouted Naruto using his signature technique.

Naruto's many clones were easily destroyed but Sasuke watched with his Sharingan activated. If he looked closely with his Sharingan then yes he could see a blur of Haku moving he just needed to get used to it enough to hit him.

Naruto gave a speech about becoming Hokage again and Haku made a speech in return about becoming a ninja.

"I will fight for my dream. I hope you do not hold a grudge. I will protect my important person and make his dreams come true. And for that I will become a ninja. I will kill you" said Haku.

'... _why is it 80% of the battles I'm in are making speeches and having flashbacks'_ sighed Sasuke.

-Outside of the mirrors Kakashi was still cursing.

' _There's no way they can defeat that boy,_ ' Kakashi thought, ' _I'm gonna have to deal with Zabuza first then deal with that guy after. If I go to help them now Sakura and Tazuna will be in danger, if I make replications we will just end up with a clone fight,_ '

"Sorry but I'm going to finish this quickly" he said and they began to fight.

"What worried about your little students?" sneered Zabuza.

"I should be glad that Naruto went to help considering my other student is a medical ninja" replied Kakashi, noting the surprise on Zabuza's face, "but even with both of them fighting together, I fear that your student is far more powerful."

Sasuke was getting frustrated. ' _How many damn times was Naruto going to try the same thing_ ' he thought. Every time Naruto ran in with his shadow clones he tried to hit Haku with his senbon, sometimes he would hit but never anywhere he wanted.

' _Wait_ ' he thought, _'was the guy getting slower.'_ There was certainly less senbon being thrown at them. _'Oh! Of fucking course,'_ he face palmed _'the senbon he'd used earlier was coated in poison. The effects were weak unless someone was hit repeatedly but the more Haku attacked, the more the poison went around his blood stream,_ _the guys body must be slowly going numb and even if it was just slightly he seemed to be getting slowler'_ he thought. This was their chance.

"Naruto, can you still move?" he asked.

"Of course I can, dattebayo!" shouted Naruto.

"I can defend you from his attacks but I can't quite hit him" said Sasuke.

"I'll hit him," Naruto huffed running towards the mirrors.

' _Damnit_ ' he thought, using the fire ball jutsu at him as he went for Naruto. This time he hit but Haku went back into the mirrors quickly and avoided most of the attack.

"You. What have you done to my body" hissed Haku.

Sasuke just smiled, "you're not as fast as you thought" he replied. "Let's do that again Naruto"

Naruto didn't seem to know what was going on exactly but he quickly got the hint, "Sure" he said.

They heard Sakura scream and it just increased his worry about what was happening to Kakashi and Sakura. They needed to get out fast. Naruto was still trying to fight Haku but he was covered in needles and Sasuke assumed he would be running low on chakra by now. He'd used shadow clones soooo many times after all.

Then Haku was moving again. "Naruto behind you," Sasuke called out, Naruto tried to make more clones but just got hit with more senbon.

"Don't waste your chakra that's what he wants you to do." he sighed.

"I know" growled Naruto.

' _I will put an end to this now_ ,' he thought, grabbing a senbon and deflecting the ones Haku threw, "Damnit Naruto get up." He said.

He could deflect the senbon and protect Naruto but he couldn't defeat him on his own he needed Naruto to find a way out… Damnit he needed to be… stronger. To protect his team…

"Naruto don't faint I can't cover you forever." He said.

"I don't need your help." Whispered Naruto before collapsing.

' _Okay, concentrate. I'll have to find a way out of this and defend Naruto,_ ' he thought. He picked up Naruto and dodged the next attack.

He looked at Haku with his Sharingan eyes. "I can see you clearly" he stated. Haku looked shocked, he probably hadn't seen his red eyes before because he was busy pelting them with needles and destroying Naruto's clones.

If he could just predict Haku's movements and hit him then he could find a way out of the mirrors-.

Haku moved and he ran forward to hit him, but the guy swerved and went in a different direction.

' _Damnit'_ Sasuke thought, ' _he's going for Naruto.'_ He used his chakra to enhance his speed and ran over to defend him.

The senbon Haku threw forward hit him all throughout his body.

But he caught Haku and threw him back against the mirror. Haku collapsed to the ground from the force. ' _Damnit, I could defeat him now but…_ ' he tried to move but his vision went fuzzy.

He heard Naruto behind him.

"Really, you're annoying," Sasuke huffed.

"Sasuke you did it!" shouted Naruto.

He turned slightly to look at him, the idiot was covered in senbon just like he was and his eyes were wide… "Look at yourself, you idiot… aren't I suppose to be the medical ninja? You shouldn't be looking like that…"

"Why! Why did you protect me!" shouted Naruto.

"You're my teammate, aren't you? It's my job to protect you." He said. His vision went blurry and he started to collapse a little. No, the senbon through his stomach hadn't hit anything important, even the ones in his neck weren't in any totally fatal places from what he could tell, but with so many of them…

"Why Sasuke! I didn't ask you to!" Shouted Naruto.

"Idiot my body just moved of its own accord…" he said, falling backwards, he'd used too much chakra, and he was losing blood too, was he going to die here? If he was just a better medical ninja he could have protected Naruto more rather than trying to fight himself... ' _damnit.'_

"It's a rule that field medic should be the last on the team to die but…" he said feeling his consciousness shift, "Naruto, don't die here…" he said, if Naruto or Kakashi didn't win this now they were all dead.

He heard Haku's final words, "he landed a blow on me and without flinching died to protect you. To protect a precious person, knowing it was a trap, he was still willing to jump in. He is a shinobi that deserves respect."

He passed out.

…

…

…

….

Waking up to people loudly shouting your name then trying to hug you and forcing senbon more into your body really wasn't a good feeling.

Sakura was crying over him and apparently shouting things about how he was supposed to be a medical ninja so he shouldn't be in this state.

"Damnit Sakura, you're heavy" he said quietly.

She gasped out "Sasuke-kun" and hugged him even tighter.

"Ow" he whined. "Sakura, that hurts."

She helped him up.

"Where's Naruto, what happened in the fight" Sasuke asked.

"Naruto's fine, and the masked boy… died" Sakura replied.

"Naruto killed him?" he asked. Maybe the dobe was better than he thought.

"No… I don't know the details but he protected Zabuza, and died." Sakura said.

Naruto started crying too when he saw him. _'Damnit stop crying over me it's my own fault I got this injured anyway.'_ He thought.

A bunch of villagers turned up to defend them from Gatoh's leftover ninja. He didn't really know what was happening but it seemed the villagers had formed some kind of revolt. Naruto used kage bunshin no jutsu and so did Kakashi. The enemy ninja seemed so surprised they jumped off the pier and back onto the boat they'd came on.

"Sasuke!" shouted Naruto, running over. "Y-you have to heal Haku and Zabuza, dattebayo!"

Sasuke looked surprised, Naruto dragged him over to their bodies but Kakashi stood in their way.

"Naruto… even if Sasuke was a fully-fledged medical ninja, it's too late to save them" he said. Naruto looked tearful. Kakashi moved Zabuza over to Haku so he could die next to him in peace.

Naruto began crying when it started to snow.

"Why are you crying baka" Sasuke sighed.

"I thought you were dead, and then Zabuza tried so hard, but now he and Haku are dead too and I couldn't even protect my team properly" he blubbered in reply.

"C'mon, it's time to go home" said Kakashi, "Sasuke let me borrow your bandages" he said.

Kakashi helped bandage him up while he extracted the senbon from his own body, he helped bandage Naruto too but Kakashi kept insisting that he rest.

They went back to Tazuna's house and Kakashi practically demanded he rest on the futon because he had been stabbed through the chest and neck with needles and it was going to take a while for that to heal properly.

They had all used a lot of chakra so they rested and replenished it. The medical salve he had given to Naruto after the previous fight with Zabuza ended up being useful once again, as Naruto used it and started shouting about how useful it was… for some reason when Naruto used it his injuries healed immediately but that didn't work with most ninja.

Sasuke lay on the futon while they talked. Tazuna wasn't there anyway it seemed the whole town had gone out to get drunk in good spirits.

The room was quiet, and Kakashi lit a few candles so they could see each other and talk by candle light.

"We should choose a team leader" said Kakashi.

"Ehh team leader?" repeated Sakura.

"For when I get captured, or when I'm not around, someone who can lead the team" he said.

"Naruto should be leader" said Sasuke immediately.

"EHhhh but Sasuke-kun wouldn't you be better…" asked Sakura.

Sasuke turned to Kakashi, who hadn't said anything. "Naruto's plan to free you from Zabuza's water jutsu worked well, and Sakura and I wouldn't follow him into a stupid plan anyway. Besides," he said turning to Naruto, "didn't you want to be Hokage? Treat it as practice. I'd rather focus on being a better medical ninja." said Sasuke.

Naruto grinned.

Sakura smiled, "that's true! But that means Naruto would be in charge of our lives on a mission… and I don't think that's a good idea" she muttered.

Kakashi was quite proud of his students, "Naruto for team leader then... Sakura, we've just completed our first mission and as you can see Sasuke is fully focused on becoming a medical ninja and Naruto is fully focused on being a frontline and (possibly) Hokage. You should take a while now to think about what sort of ninja you want to be. If you still have no motivation to be a ninja, then try and find one." He said.

He'd made a decision during the fight with Zabuza, if Sakura was going to stay on their team she needed to stop being a fangirl and start training properly. She had basically no muscle definition and although she was very smart and always got 100s on written tests in the academy she was weak compared to Naruto and Sasuke.

She may have helped out a little in their mission but it was obvious that most of what she did was stand in the back. While Sasuke, who was supposed to be the one standing in the back had to go out and fight Haku out on the front lines.

Now maybe that was partly his fault but, if Sakura could train to be more of a front-line ninja or even a back line ninja who could protect Sasuke, it would really fix their odd team dynamic. After all they couldn't have only Naruto doing the actual fighting and they all REALLY needed to learn to stop Sasuke from getting injured.

"Our team dynamic as it is, it's terrible" Kakashi deadpanned.

"Ehhhh but Kakashi-sensei we make a great team" complained Naruto

"No. The proof is right in front of you, Sasuke got seriously injured," Sasuke winced and looked away guiltily. "Sasuke is a medical ninja, he should be the one standing at the back. And only fighting if he needs to defend himself or if you need him to pull off a plan, if Sakura is going to stand around at the back… Well, she should at least train in how to defend Sasuke from combat but as it is we only have Naruto as a front line… if I'm there too then it could be fine but right now you guys are a three-man team that consists of two people standing at the back not doing anything." said Kakashi.

Sasuke bit his lip, sure he got hurt but that's because he jumped in front of Naruto, and Sakura wouldn't have been able to fight Haku…

"Perhaps if Naruto had been there from the beginning Sasuke wouldn't have got so hurt but the two of you need to defend him like he did you, and Sasuke you really need to NOT jump in the way of fatal attacks to defend your teammates. Let THEM protect YOU. Naruto and Sakura need to successfully protect you so that you can keep them alive." Kakashi said with an exasperated sigh.

Sasuke huffed.

"You don't have to decide right now Sakura, but if you can't find some motivation to be a ninja, or at least find something you want to specialise in… then perhaps you would be better off on a different team." Kakashi said.

He knew it sounded harsh, but he hoped Sakura would realise the severity of the situation and be inspired by it rather than give up.

Sakura looked upset, Naruto also looked guilty and kept glancing at Sasuke.

They went to sleep not long after. None of them felt like speaking after Kakashi's lecture.

He was trying to sleep when Naruto shuffled up to him on the futon.

"Next time, I will be the one protecting you" whispered Naruto and hugged him.

Sakura shuffled up onto his other side.

"I want to be a ninja that can defend her teammates, I'm going to be a great kunoichi and stand on my own two feet. I won't let you get hurt like that again" She said and hugged him too.

' _They've grown so much_ _already'_ mused Kakashi watching them.

It took them two weeks to recover properly.

They went up to the hill overlooking the town, and put Zabuza's sword down with a grave marker for Haku, their bodies had been burned to avoid enemy ninja from studying them and learning secrets from the Hidden Mist village.

"I was wondering Kakashi sensei" said Sakura. "Does a ninja really have to be the way everyone says they should be?" she asked.

"Well, many villages think Ninja are not supposed to seek out a reason to exist, they exist as tools… that's how it is for Konoha too," replied Kakashi.

"Does becoming a real ninja mean that?" whined Naruto "I don't like that."

"Well most ninja don't like the idea, and some suffer from it, like Zabuza and the boy."

"All right!" Said Naruto loudly "I've decided I'm going to follow my own way of the ninja! And I'm never going to regret anything!"

"That's a good goal" mused Kakashi, eyeing them all "I hope Sasuke and Sakura do the same."

"…I think my only goal should be to actually follow the rules for medical ninja instead of ignoring them" muttered Sasuke.

"That would be a good start" replied Kakashi.

They waved goodbye to the bridge builder and the villagers. Naruto started crying like an idiot again as they left, and the bridge builder named the bridge The Great Naruto Bridge. They wanted a bridge that symbolised hope. Apparently, Naruto brought hope back to Inari and Inari brought hope to the town so they could revolt.

"Yosh! When I get back I'm going to eat so much ramen and I'm going to tell Iruka-sensei all about my skills" Naruto said happily.

"I… I guess I will think about what kind of Ninja I want to be, I don't want to just watch everyone else's backs and let you guys protect me my whole life," Sakura said quietly, "what about you Sasuke-kun"

"I'll go to the hospital… then I need to practice making antidotes so Naruto doesn't have to turn into an emo and stab himself in the hand again like an idiot" he said.

"OI" whined Naruto. "The medical cream stuff you gave me worked super well though! I'm gonna use it in combat so I can keep fighting!" he shouted.

"It doesn't work that way idiot" Sasuke glared.

"Well these all sound like good ideas" smiled Kakashi.

"Ne what are you going to do when you get back to the village Kakashi-sensei?" asked Naruto.

Kakashi thought about all the paperwork he was going to have to fill out for this mission that was meant to be C rank and turned into a high B rank with teary eyes.

"Well first of all you guys should get a check-up in the hospital" he sighed. "I'll go to the Hokage tower and fill in the mission report."

* * *

Lots of sad things!

Just remember that a lot of things happen while they are in wave that I don't fully mention. It's just that Sasuke isn't really paying attention to it. He is doing other things and focusing on his own jutsu.

Naruto still does all of his hero stuff. Sakura still walks around town and sees the poverty and stuff. And, after Sasuke passes out the whole thing with Naruto, Haku and Zabuza, everything still happens like in canon.

But I'm focusing on only Sasuke and I don't want to just rewrite what happens in the canon if I'm not adding things to it...

Hopefully Team 7 will become a less dysfunctional Genin team...

Also, Sakura is going to become a great ninja and leave her fangirl stage very soon in my story. I am not waiting around for it.


	5. To bond as a Team

I've been away travelling but now I'm back again

* * *

CHAPTER 5

"This is Iyashi-sensei," said Sasuke.

"Nice to meet you" said Iyashi.

"Ah n-nice to meet you" replied Sakura.

"Ah! You're the one teaching Sasuke to do doctor stuff" said Naruto

"You could say that yes," replied Iyashi, "How did your latest mission go?"

"Fine, Kakashi-sensei wanted the hospital to check us for injuries" Sasuke sighed.

"Well, that is general protocol." Iyashi mused, "But I would just advise you three to rest for a few days, it's always good to take a day or two off after a mission, and besides…" He stacked a whole bunch of books and gave them to Sasuke who looked at him annoyed. "You have reading to do" he said.

"Why do you always do this to me?" Asked Sasuke.

"Now, now Sasuke-kun, reading is the best thing for a medical ninja" Iyashi smiled.

"Eeeh? Sasuke has to read all those?" Naruto questioned.

"There are some books there on remedies, medicines and poisons, you should get started on them soon. Also you're still shit at the D rank level jutsu you should practice again." Iyashi smiled wickedly, ignoring Sasuke's glare.

"Do you really read all that" asked Naruto skeptically.

"I have to, so yes" replied Sasuke.

Sakura didn't say anything, she'd been very quiet since they'd left Wave country.

They left the hospital together, it was already getting late and they were just about to head to their respective houses when Kakashi popped up next to them..

"Alright then," he said, "how about I treat you guys tonight for succeeding in a tough yet unconventional mission."

"Can we have Ramen?!" asked Naruto

"Sure" replied Kakashi, "anything that get's me out of filling in the paperwork."

"Kakashi-sensei, that isn't very professional of you" scolded Sakura.

"Yeah well, this team isn't that professional so it works" he replied, they headed off towards Ichiraku ramen with Naruto chanting about how great they were on their mission.

Sasuke sighed quietly and glanced at his team, Sakura was sat quietly in thought while Naruto slurped bowl after bowl of Ramen.

He'd sort of hoped to go home earlier than this, he still had his stack of books with him and… well, this wasn't the best week for him. Their mission had lasted longer than he thought it would. The anniversary of the Uchiha Clan 'Incident' was in a few days…

He caught Kakashi's eye, and glared at the mask covered smile sent his way. Kakashi probably knew it was the anniversary. All of the teachers in school eyed him on that day every year.

As if they expected him to flip out and break something… Well he had attacked an asshole in his class once… But come on, it was only once. It wasn't on the anniversary of the massacre, but the bastard was saying that his clan deserved what they got.

So, Sasuke told the teachers that the bastard deserved what he got when they found out he'd strung him upside down from a lamp post with chakra wire. They'd called his anger 'explosive' tch.

Needless to say Iruka-sensei kept a close eye on him whenever his clan was mentioned after that.

He glanced back at Kakashi. He still hadn't told him how he got the Sharingan in his eye. But it was very suspicious. Kakashi sensei wasn't part of the Uchiha clan, and yet he used the sharingan and was obviously good enough with it to do his clan's techniques. Where did he get the eye if he wasn't part of the clan? Did he take it from someone?

He shook his head with a sigh. It didn't matter, his clan wasn't coming back anyway. They finished dinner with eery quietness. Even Naruto didn't fill the silence with his usual chatter.

He took a breath as he entered his house. That's right, his clan wasn't coming back. And neither was his brother… But that didn't stop him from seeing red eyes staring at him when he went to sleep that night.

…

The next few days weren't much better for him. Kakashi gave him that 'are you alright' look every time he stopped to steady himself in training. And if that wasn't reason enough to get extremely pissed off he also had to focus on his medical ninjutsu and keeping his chakra control accurate when Naruto stupidly tried to eat a poisonous plant.

He held it together well. Ignoring Kakashi seemed like the best idea and he did his best to make it through every day without thinking about his clan too much.

The day of the anniversary finally arrived and he figured that he could get through it. He'd done it before after all. Every year since it happened he'd gotten through it.

They trained later than usual and Kakashi announced their training was over before disappearing abruptly in a poof of smoke.

Naruto let out a loud yawn, "I'm gonna go get food" he announced. Beginning to walk off.

Sakura hummed thoughtfully in agreement and turned away as well.

But as she turned away Sasuke found himself reaching out for her.

' _Don't leave me alone'_ he thought, ' _not today._ '

She turned to him curiously and he realised what he'd done quickly pulling away again.

"What's wrong, Sasuke-kun?" she asked.

"Nothing" he replied automatically and fell quiet. What exactly could he say.

Realistically, he could just say 'it's the anniversary of my clan's death,' but… saying it outloud was just… and they'd want him to talk about it... or something…

"Sasuke?" Sakura asked.

He had been staring at the ground. He looked up at her, Naruto was now staring at him too.

Wonderful. Now they were both staring at him and he couldn't bring himself to talk to them.

He walked away without another word.

He couldn't let them worry, this always happened around the anniversary. He just didn't want to be alone, because when he was alone there was nothing to distract him from the memories. In a few days he would be fine.

' _I'm not paranoid,_ ' he thought spitefully, ' _It's not like I can't handle being alone._ '

He stopped in the street. He still didn't want to go home. Nor did he want to go to the Uchiha District.

He walked towards the Uchiha Clan memorial stone instead.

No one else would come here anyway. Nobody cared about the anniversary. It was years ago and most people are trying to forget that it happened.

He stood in front of the stone and sighed. If his family were here right now everything would be different. If Ita- If HE hadn't killed everyone. Then maybe he wouldn't feel so empty.

He didn't notice his team come up behind him until they were standing next to him staring at the stone.

Naruto immediately hugged him from the side, and despite it being uncomfortable to have Naruto leeching onto the side of him, he knew it was meant to be a meaningful gesture. Sakura also hugged him and he sighed.

"It's nice to share your pain" commented Kakashi, placing some flowers in front of the grave.

They stood in silence for a while.

Eventually, they left but Naruto and Sakura refused to leave him alone. Even insisting that they all stay around Sakura's house for a sleepover. They ended up talking all night instead of going to sleep and even the next day he had to stop them from following him home after training.

…

Now, Sakura didn't want to brag. But she was a smart girl. And she knew she was.

She'd graduated with the top written exam marks and she read everything she could, from the History of Konoha to the important workings of Ninja. But one thing she'd never thought about in all of her studies was, What did it mean to be a Shinobi.

If asked, she would have given the textbook answer:

A shinobi is someone who trains rigorously in how to use their chakra, in order to do missions or in times of war defend their village. A shinobi should be loyal to their village for life and follow the Kage of their village.

But. When it came down to it, what really was a Shinobi's purpose? Naruto had found his own ninja way and Sasuke, although he seemed cold a lot of the time, seemed to seriously care despite his tsundere attitude towards everything. But what did being a shinobi mean to her…

She just couldn't think of anything.

In addition, for the past few days she'd noticed something was wrong with Sasuke.

Throughout their time as teammates she knew there were many things Sasuke didn't really do. For example, some days he didn't speak to them at all. In fact, on most days he failed at interacting with them normally.

At first she thought he was just really cool, and acting so aloof. But actually, he didn't seem to know how to act around people at all… and that just came off as acting cool to her and the other girls in the academy.

Anytime they went out together she could see his discomfort, he was the exact opposite of Naruto who could talk to anyone at anytime about anything. Then again it never stopped Naruto from having an argument with Sasuke even if the latter barely made any sound in his replies.

On the other hand, she'd spent years and years watching Sasuke in their classroom and she liked to think she knew his mannerisms quite well even if she didn't truly understand him. He tapped his foot against the desk a lot, he was often rude to people, but he also worked hard.

Not to mention he was very good looking, even when he came into class late with messy hair and looking like he hadn't slept, while explaining to Iruka-sensei that he had been up reading all night. Now in the academy that had just made her swoon over how dedicated and smart he was but, she never knew it was because he was training to be a medical ninja. She wasn't as observant as she thought she was.

But she COULD tell. There was something off with him. It was just like, if Naruto turned up one day and didn't speak to anyone or announced he hated ramen or something. It was just, not right.

He stared off into the distance too much, his eyes lingered on Naruto's kunai for far too long as they sparred. And whether he realised it or not he kept sighing and tapping his foot against the ground.

He was acting paranoid, or perhaps flighty. It could be the after effects of their mission. She reasoned. She'd read about the lingering trauma missions had even after they had been completed. What else could be wrong?

When he grabbed her hand after training she almost had a heart attack. But instead of the excitement of having her crush touch her. She could only focus on how dead his eyes were until he walked away.

"What's up with that teme?" asked Naruto

Kakashi popped up next to her making her jump.

"I suspect it's down to what day it is today" he said.

"Huh?" she said, "why? What day is it?" she asked, noting the flowers in his hand.

"Well, it's the anniversary of the Uchiha Clan Massacre" Kakashi replied carelessly. "Would you care to join me in showing respect to some dear friends of mine?" he asked

Naruto was gaping. She realised she was too… the Uchiha Clan… Massacre. Of course, that was common knowledge right? Why hadn't she known…

Cursing herself she followed her team mates through town, why hadn't she ever thought of it before. Everyone knew Sasuke was an orphan, just like Naruto. But unlike Naruto he never acted silly or pulled pranks on everyone. In contrast, he was always so quiet.

He'd lost his WHOLE family in one night. She pressed her lips together tightly. Naruto looked solemn. They're both alone, she thought.

I guess I am oblivious sometimes, that was her thought as she watched Naruto glomp Sasuke from the side. Her teammates were breaking down in front of her and there wasn't anything she could do.

"It's alright Sakura" said Kakashi. She startled and looked up at him. "Now they have us" he said.

She nodded and thought back on Kakashi's lecture around the memorial stone during bell train.

'A Ninja who doesn't follow the rules is scum, but a ninja that abandons their friends is worse scum.'

' _Ah… that's what a Shinobi is.'_ she thought, ' _Someone who protects those they care about.'_

…..

Sasuke was wrapped up in a blanket on his living room floor reading books.

It had been a while now since their mission had ended, and he needed to get back to studying properly. He could buy a lot of herbs and plants from the store to make the medicines and poisons in his books but some things he would need to grow.

He was startled by a knock on the door.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura chirped when he opened the door.

"Why are you two here?" he asked.

"Kakashi-sensei said he wanted us to hang out as a team more so we're here to hang out at your house" said Naruto, ignoring Sasuke's annoyance at not being included in this decision.

"So what are you doing?" asked Sakura, she tilted her head to the side, "are you alright?"

He just glared at her and ignored the second question.

"I'm reading so I can get certified as a medical ninja" he replied, moving aside to let them into his apartment.

"Ooo how do you become certified" asked Sakura looking excited.

"Officially you can only become certified when you get to chunin level, but there's a lot of exams I have to start taking soon to even be considered for certification" he sighed sitting down with blankets around him again and opening another book.

"That sounds boring" huffed Naruto.

"Yes well, I'm not technically a medical ninja of Konoha until I'm certified, I'm just a guy that's apprenticing at the hospital," he muttered, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Isn't all that reading boring" asked Naruto, "I never did any readings at the academy unless it was teaching us how to do cool stuff"

"Unfortunately, most of being a medical ninja is reading" sighed Sasuke.

Sakura huffed, "how did you even pass the written exams if you didn't do any of the readings."

Naruto just laughed and rubbed the back of his head as an answer.

"Anyway, now that we're back to doing D rank missions again I need to show Kakashi-sensei that I'm serious about being a ninja" she sighed.

"Why did you become a ninja in the first place" asked Sasuke.

Sakura pouted, "no one in my family has ever been a ninja, I wanted to prove myself as a capable kunoichi, my mother always used to tell me stories of strong female shinobi and I thought, I want to be like them" she sighed, "but then at the academy I never really did the physical stuff I just read a lot."

"That can be useful too… you have high intelligence and good chakra control, you'd probably be good at genjutsu" said Sasuke, although, he was mostly trying to read his book on 'proper chakra distribution to aid yourself and allies.'

"Ehh, I've never tried genjutsu, only dispelling it" she said.

"You can dispel genjutsu" exclaimed Naruto.

Sakura gave him a pissed off look and smacked him over the head, "it's a requirement to pass the academy! Seriously! How did you pass!" she shouted.

Sasuke looked up at them, somehow they all ended up seated around his kotatsu.

"Hold on a second" he said standing to get a book from his room. He plucked a book on different types of ninja from his shelf… he had bought it years ago because it had a useful section on medical ninja. He came back and handed it to Sakura.

"I'm sure it would be best for you to try out some things and see if you get passionate about anything," he said.

Sakura flipped through the book, it was very detailed.

It was called, The Art of Shinobi. And the introduction said the following:

There are three basic types of techniques for an aspiring ninja: ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu. Within these categories sub categories exist such as fuuinjutsu, juinjutsu and senjutsu as well as doujutsu, kekkei genkai and ninja who specialise in medical jutsu, particular weapons or seals.

Hand seals are used to manipulate chakra more easily. With hand seals, users can control their chakra and techniques with higher efficiency.

Jutsu, meaning technique are the mystical arts a ninja will utilise during battle, to perform a technique a ninja must bring forth their spirit energy and body energy. Because of the extensive number of hand seals and different combinations, there are thousands of potential techniques yet to be discovered.

The main jutsu types: Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu.

Ninjutsu, meaning literally, 'ninja technique' is basically any technique that isn't categorised as genjustu or taijutsu. Most ninjutsu requires chakra and hand seals, but some techniques specialise in weaponry would also qualify as ninjutsu. Therefore all subcategories under a specific weapon would also be under ninjutsu.

Genjutsu, meaning literally, 'illusionary techniques' use chakra. Unlike ninjutsu, the effects of genjutsu are not real, being only illusions experienced by those who fall victim to it. This category also falls under Yin Release. Yin release uses majorly spiritual energy and can be used to create form out of nothing, therefore when creating an illusion with genjutsu it requires good chakra control to balance the amount of spiritual and body energy being used.

Finally, Taijutsu, meaning literally 'body techniques' are a form that refers to anything involving martial arts of the optimisation of natural human abilities. Taijutsu is used by directly accessing the user's physical and mental energies, relying on the stamina and strength gained through rigorous training. It typically does not use chakra and uses no hand seals to perform, occasionally making use of stances. Taijutsu is simply put, hand to hand combat.

In the subcategories of jutsu there are:

Barrier techniques, weaponry techniques such as Bukijutsu, Chakra absorption techniques that allow the user to absorb the chakra of another individual.

In addition, Chakra Flow, includes both the flow of chakra through the body to increase strength in the body, and the use of the flow of chakra through a weapon to either increase the usability of the weapon or gain an advantage. Usually requires the user to touch the object to maintain the chakra flow.

Clone techniques are so vast that they fall under their own category, any ability that makes a clone of the user is a clone technique. There are also clone techniques that transform another person into a clone of the user and genjutsu to create illusionary clones.

Fuunjutsu meaning sealing techniques, are a type of jutsu that seal objects, living beings, chakra, along with a wide variety of other things within another object. They can also be used to restrict movement or unseal objects from within something or someone.

Hiden and kekkei genkai are secret techniques passed within groups and clans. Normally you would need to be a member of the clan to use them.

Medical ninjutsu, is a branch of ninjutsu associated with healing, as well as the manipulation of their own, or another's body, shinobi that use this form are categorised as medical-nin. The use of medical ninjutsu requires very advanced chakra control as well as extensive knowledge on such things as herbs, medicines, the human body and even poisons.

Senjutsu are known as Sage techniques and is a specialised field that allows the user to sense and then gather natural energy. Practitioners learn to draw the energy of nature inside of them and blend it with their own chakra resulting in an extra powerful senjutsu chakra.

-The book then then detailed specific chapters on each of the jutsu with many more pages explaining techniques and how to use them.

"…I always knew there were a lot of different jutsu specialities but I didn't think there was this many" Sakura muttered.

"That all sounds boring to me! Ninja should just run in and do the jutsu they like instead of trying to do one thing!" exclaimed Naruto.

Sasuke glared at him, "if you do that you will never master any type of jutsu."

"I've never really tried genjutsu… honestly I think the most fascinating study is on seals and traps, when we learned about them in class I got really into it and made a whole bunch of them to show to Iruka-sensei" she mused.

"Seals take a lot of studying from what I've heard, you'd probably be great at them" commented Sasuke. He really wasn't going to be able to study with these two here, so he closed his book with a sigh.

"If I learned genjutsu and trapping techniques using seals do you think it would help our team dynamic like Kakashi-sensei wanted," Sakura asked.

Sasuke shrugged, "if it's what you are most passionate about then he can't say no, besides as long as I learn not to get hit you guys can do whatever you want to win a fight."

Sakura smiled widely. Naruto was picking up his books, reading the covers then putting them down again with strained faces.

"Don't you have anything good to read? Why are all of these about plants?" he asked.

"Iyashi-sensei wants me to make a garden for poisons so I can start mixing my own and it's always good to learn how to make more kinds of medicines" Sasuke said.

"Ooo a garden? But Sasuke-kun where would you put a garden, there isn't exactly room in your house" she said looking around.

"I already have a garden for medical herbs in the Uchiha District, I'm just going to fence off an area and plant poisons there, I have the seeds I need to plant I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet…" he muttered, why were they looking at him like that.

"Ne, ne Sasuke-kun I've never been to the Uchiha District" said Naruto slyly.

Sakura nodded in agreement.

Sasuke stared at them, "ugh fine, if you want to see it then you can come help me garden" he huffed.

They cheered as he got up to collect things he needed.

...

A few days later they walked together to the meeting spot, a bridge on the outskirts of Konoha that was next to the training areas.

Sakura was much happier and had even started wearing her forehead protector properly instead of using it to tie her hair up. She even tied her hair into a ponytail so it wouldn't get in the way. She was complaining about how her parents kept asking if she was sick because she decided to eat properly for nutrition instead of dieting like she usually did.

Kakashi turned up an hour late and they took the day to train together rather than taking a mission. He said he wanted to make sure they weren't mentally traumatised from fighting after the last mission or something.

Kakashi and Sakura watched as Naruto made shadow clones and tried to hit Sasuke in a spar.

"Oi! How are you dodging everything, dattebayo!" shouted Naruto.

"I've been training for years in speed" said Sasuke, this only made Naruto more angry and he tripled the amount of clones he was sending after him.

"Why do you get special training! That's not fair!" whined Naruto.

"My friend actually wants to meet you guys I'll introduce you if you like" Sasuke said. "I think our team needs more taijutsu training anyway."

Kakashi knew that Sasuke trained with Tenten and that Lee kid. And of course, he knew their teacher Maito Gai pretty well. It would be good for Naruto and Sakura to train with them and improve their taijutsu together. He was also working out ways to train Naruto as the team leader.

Naruto was already smart when he needed to be he just had to work on being less stupid the rest of the time.

"Kakashi sensei I know what I want to be!" Sakura spoke up as they watched.

"Oh? Good, good, what would that be?" he asked. He had noticed her change in hair style so was looking forward to seeing the new, serious ninja Sakura.

"A genjutsu and trapping seals specialist!" she shouted.

If Kakashi was a lesser man he would have face palmed.

But no. This was good, if she was truly interested he could teach her a thing or two about seals and genjutsu from his own knowledge and he had some good friends that owed him favours that could help with the other things… as long as she really was interested and would be willing to train properly.

"Good" he said out loud. Sakura beamed at him.

He watched Naruto go for a crazy manoeuvre involving using clones of himself to act as a giant slingshot. I guess that meant it was time to stop them.

"Naruto, Sasuke" he called, they stopped and looked over at him, "I've heard from Iyashi-san that he wants to up your training at the hospital since you are showing a lot of promise. Therefore, for the next few weeks we are going to have a training schedule."

He had big plans, and he knew Iyashi wanted to start training Sasuke in things beyond Genin level, to be honest he had the intelligence and chakra control for full medical-nin training but it was against a lot of people's ideas.

After the last ninja war it had become popular opinion that you shouldn't teach someone under 13 proper medical ninjutsu in case they ended up traumatised before they reached an appropriate ninja level. Therefore, unless you showed real passion and skill you wouldn't normally be taught a lot before at least, Chunin level. It was a stupid belief that the elders of the village followed but real medical ninjas were in agreement that the earlier a ninja started medical ninjutsu training, the better it was for the village.

With luck, and good training, their team would end up the best out of all the rookies.

"It is obvious to me now, that we are better suited as an attack and defend team, that specialises in either sabotaging, front lining or defending others. Maybe all three at once," Kakashi said. "We have Naruto to lead and both deliver and take hits, Sakura to distract, protect and give Naruto opportunities to attack. And Sasuke to keep us going and as an overall defence. And of course me to fill in any blanks. With this in mind I want Naruto to start leading the missions."

"Eh?" shouted Naruto. "Then! Are we taking good missions? You know, like a hot mission! Where I can shine! That follows my ninja path!"

"...No, we're taking D rank missions for extra money and experience." stated Kakashi.

The D rank missions in general were easy, non-life threatening missions such as: catching cats, pet-sitting, baby-sitting, pulling weeds out of gardens, finding lost toys etc.

"And Naruto, you AREN'T allowed to complain because the Hokage has pretty much banned us from taking anything higher since our last 'C' rank mission ended up being a fiasco. The Hokage said we have to wait until we've had more training." Kakashi said.

Naruto pouted, "how am i meant to lead a team then" he asked.

"You need to practice using your team skills to the greatest potential to complete missions" said Kakashi, "so first of all I want you all to think of three things that you can bring to our team"

He looked at Naruto first.

"Eh? My leadership skills right?" he said.

"If you think your leadership is valuable to the team" said Kakashi.

Naruto nodded confidently.

"And your stamina" said Sakura, "your limitless energy is great for outlasting enemies in battle."

Kakashi hummed in agreement.

"Otherwise my shadow clones…" said Naruto.

"Your pranks probably help too" said Sasuke quietly, they turned to look at him. "Kakashi said sabotage, Naruto's the best out of us at exploiting people's weaknesses to prank them, he just has to do that in a more ninja way." he said.

"Now that is true" said Kakashi. "His pranking mind could certainly be put to better use. And how about your strengths Sakura?"

"She's the smartest!" Shouted Naruto.

"Eh?" exclaimed Sakura, "that is Sasuke isn't it?"

"Sasuke is very knowledgeable in medicine and support jutsu but he doesn't match your overall intellect" said Kakashi. "You know more about shinobi history and jutsus than the others.

"Then I guess, Intellect, Genjutsu and my seals to trap people are what I can bring to the team" she said.

Kakashi nodded and looked at Sasuke.

"My medical ninjutsu" he shrugged.

"Motivation for Naruto" Sakura joked.

"Ah, now that is also true" said Kakashi, "You can make your team work harder just by being here."

Sasuke glared at him. "That's not a skill" he said. It wasn't his fault Naruto took everything he did as a challenge.

Kakashi just smiled, "one more thing."

Sasuke sighed, "poisons"

"Alright then" said Kakashi, "and I have my Jounin status, charming good looks and street smarts. Let's go get some D rank missions" he said walking off cheerily.

"So, he doesn't really bring anything at all" muttered Sakura as they followed him.

And so, Naruto began training with Kakashi on how to be a team leader, Kakashi set up team scenarios and found old mission reports that Naruto had to look over.

Then he had to tell him how the team in the scenario that could have been done better. Anytime Naruto lost focus Kakashi would threaten him by saying he assumed Naruto didn't really want to be a team leader and he would just give the position to someone else~.

Naruto was actually pretty good at it when he took the time to think things through, although mostly his answer was just to use kage bunshin no jutsu and make a million shadow clones to win.

He brought them a different D rank mission every day, to start off the day and left Naruto to lead them. He claimed that he was supervising and that they could ask him for help if they were too weak to do it alone. But really he was just sat in a tree reading Icha Icha Paradise.

"What's our mission today?" Sakura asked glancing over to the mission report Kakashi had left them with.

"Weeding some guys herb garden" sighed Naruto, "how am I supposed to lead something like this."

"Well, as Kakashi-sensei said, we need to use our ninja skills to complete the mission" said Sakura.

"Yeah, ninja skills to weed a garden" whined Naruto, "what skills are there to use? Sasuke can only do stuff if people our hurt anyway."

"There ARE other things I can do" Sasuke sighed, "medical ninja are more than just healing.

Kakashi glanced down from his tree in surprise, that was different to what the Uchiha believed before. Maybe all the teamwork was changing him.

"Yosh" said Naruto, "then let's just work together, Sasuke can keep an eye out for medical things and you guys can explain to me which ones are herbs and which are weeds 'cause I don't have a clue"

Sakura facepalmed, "I guess since I can't practice any genjutsu or traps, I'll explain plants to Naruto so he doesn't eat anything poisonous… again"

Kakashi watched his team walk off together. His little genin students were learning, ' _I must be a good teacher'_ he thought.

* * *

This chapter was originally longer but I've cut some of it into the next chapter instead.

I will update again soon.


	6. To begin the exam

Hello,

Daygon Yuuki: I don't know what you're trying to say, Kakashi-sensei obviously has great teaching skills ;D

Enjoy!

* * *

CHAPTER 6

Sasuke trained at the hospital with Iyashi most days, or continued to practice medical ninjutsu with his team... He was finally learning the mystical palm technique but learning to use the right amount of chakra for different injuries really took a long time.

In Konoha, people generally practiced on fish.

Although he was getting better, it wasn't as fast as he wanted… sure he had a lot of medical knowledge, but he thought back to his fight with Haku where he couldn't really do anything and it annoyed him.

"Stop daydreaming" said Iyashi, thrusting a patient's chart into his hands.

"I wasn't" Sasuke huffed.

"Good, because as a medical ninja you need to be fully focused at all times" Iyashi lectured.

Sasuke glared at him, "teach me some offensive attacks" he said.

Iyashi looked at him. "You're not good enough for that" he said and walked away again. "You're next patients down the hall, hurry up" he called behind him.

Sasuke glared, Iyashi was right, he wasn't good enough yet. And it pissed him off!

Yuuhi Kurenai looked at the team in front of her.

"When you asked for a favour, I really wasn't expecting this" she said to Kakashi.

"Who's this lady?" shouted Naruto.

Kurenai looked at the blond boy with the orange jumpsuit… "Do you really wear that on missions" she asked.

"It's surprisingly stealthy" replied Sasuke.

Kurenai hummed, "where's the girl then" she asked.

"Eh?" said Sakura, "you mean me?" she looked at Kakashi hoping for an answer.

"Kurenai is one of Konoha's best genjutsu specialists. I've asked her to come and help out today" said Kakashi.

Kurenai looked at Sakura closely before smiling. "Alright Kakashi you've got yourself a deal." she said. "There are too few female ninja that aren't just annoying fangirls anyway."

After all being a respectable female ninja is hard enough in this society without fangirls around making you look bad by not training properly and just spending their time chasing after male ninjas.

"First of all you need taijutsu training, you've got no muscle whatsoever" she said.

She turned to glare at Kakashi, "have you given them any physical training at all" she asked sceptically.

Kakashi pulled out Icha Icha Paradise and waved at her offhandedly, "of course, of course"

"I won't tell you how to train your team" said Kurenai, "but an hour a day, at least, of physical training should be expected."

"I'll leave you to it" said Kakashi.

She turned back to the pink haired girl. If she wanted to become a genjutsu specialist then that was fine, but it wouldn't be easy.

"Let's begin" she said, taking hold on the pink girls arm and dragging her off towards the training ground.

Naruto and Sasuke watched Sakura get dragged away.

"Uh, will she be alright" asked Naruto

"Sure, sure" said Kakashi, "now how about you two do some taijutsu training too. It's time for Naruto to learn that shadow clones aren't the answer to everything"

"BLASPHEMY" shouted Naruto.

Four hours later Sakura came back, looking exhausted beyond belief but extremely happy.

"Next on my brilliant schedule, missions" said Kakashi.

"If the schedule is so brilliant, why are all of our missions catching the same damn cat" said Sasuke.

"Well… it keeps running away" replied Kakashi. "On the bright side you're getting lots of practice in healing Naruto's scratches…"

"The cat does seem to hate you" said Sakura, looking at Naruto.

She led on the ground, "you guys go get the mission, I'll catch up" she said, and fell asleep on the grass.

Kakashi smiled, he was glad his team were working together better.

He had been initially worried about making Naruto team leader. If he kept trying to do his one-sided rivalry with Sasuke it would have made a real mess of things. But instead things were going nicely. Naruto made the plans, Sakura had the knowledge to make the plan work and Sasuke made sure the other two didn't take things too far.

It was really a blessing that after the mission in the hidden waves Naruto had mellowed out and realised there wasn't any point in challenging Sasuke to fight.

And so, time went on.

"Ne, Sasuke where are we going?" asked Naruto.

"To train" replied Sasuke. They walked up the steps to the Dojo and he opened the door. Immediately moving to the side to avoid the weapons thrown in his direction.

Tenten ran to the door. "You're here! Great let's get started. Lee's already doing 100 push ups." She said dragging them inside.

"This is my team" said Sasuke, gesturing at Naruto and Sakura.

"Nice to meet you" said Tenten, "I am the beautiful Tenten, soon to be best weapons expert in Konoha"

"Ahh, nice to meet you" said Sakura.

"TENTEN" shouted Lee, "who are these people!"

"Lee, this is Sasuke's team" said Tenten.

Lee's eyes lit on fire, "yosh, then let us begin the training of youth!"

"You're weird!" shouted Naruto pointing at Lee... You couldn't really blame him… Lee was wearing his green suit as always.

"Lee is the best taijutsu fighter I know" said Sasuke.

Naruto looked at the bushy eyebrowed guy. "I bet I could take him" he said.

The results of that fight were strongly in Lee's favour.

Initially, Sasuke thought it had been a bad idea to introduce his team to Lee and Tenten, Naruto and Lee kept destroying the Dojo by turning everything into a competition and trying to outdo each other.

But luckily, it was soon obvious that Lee was far faster than Naruto and far better at taijutsu. So, Naruto started desperately training to be just as good as him. They had proclaimed themselves rivals and the results were often interesting and slightly messy.

Most of Sasuke's practice with healing came from Lee and Naruto's 'competitions'...

Meanwhile, Tenten and Sakura bonded over weapons and taijutsu.

She asked Lee to train her in taijutsu. And immediately regretted it after she saw Lee's physical training schedules. But she worked harder at taijutsu and weaponry along with learning all sorts of traps and seals from Tenten.

On most Saturdays and Sundays Team 7 ended up training with Tenten and Lee at Tenten's parents Dojo. Even Kakashi-sensei came to join in and watch their progress a few times.

"Ne Sasuke!" shouted Naruto.

Sasuke turned around, he was heading to the hospital, "what happened to you idiot?" he asked.

Naruto was covered in scratches and had a rather profound wound on the side of his head. "Ahhh me and Lee were trying to dodge Tenten's weapon attacks blindfolded and it went a bit too far when Tenten used her super scroll technique," he said rubbing the back of his head.

The two of them needed to stop injuring themselves trying to outdo each other. They kept taking on more than they could handle.

"Tenten also said to tell you that their team is doing intense team training or something for a few days so they won't be here to train" he said.

Sasuke shook his head, "I should never have introduced you to Lee you're both always trying to out stupid each other. C'mere." He put his hands over the wound on Naruto's head, it wasn't that bad, it was just bleeding a lot, not bad enough for head trauma at least. He used the mystical palm technique to fix the damage. Healing Naruto was really weird, his wounds always closed up ten times faster than other peoples.

"Next time you're being stupid, at least bandage yourself up after so you don't get an infection" he scolded.

Naruto grinned, "Ehhh Sasuke you're getting better, you can actually heal things now" he said.

Sasuke smacked him on the head.

"Anyway," continued Naruto, "Kakashi sent me to tell you that since we aren't going to train at the Dojo on the weekend we're gonna do some team training thing. I know Sakura's been going crazy with her seal making and genjutsu practice and I think Kakashi wants to see if we can work together now."

Sasuke sighed, "Sure, sure, I'll be there, just don't go crazy and start making thousands of clones just to try and hit me again."

"I won't make any promises" Naruto grinned.

Kakashi was proud of his team's progress in the past few months since they became genin.

' _They are certainly ready._ ' he thought, watching them train. Sasuke was sat under a tree reading about the effects of exhaustion on the body while Sakura and Naruto sparred.

Naruto ganged up on Sakura with his shadow clones but Sakura used a genjutsu known as flower petal escape to trick Naruto into seeing her body turn into flower petals then snuck past the shadow clones and planted a tag on the real Naruto's back…

' _That's an explosive tag… This is going to end well.'_ He thought.

…

"Good work today guys," Kakashi praised "Sakura, I especially liked your trap work, especially when you started planting tags on Naruto's clones and making them explode near him."

Sakura beamed.

"Let's take a break now, you guys seem pretty tired" he said.

"Oh, my Ninja God! Sasuke made lunch" exclaimed Naruto.

"It's not lunch, it's onigiri" stated Sasuke.

"... is onigiri not lunch anymore" muttered Naruto taking one.

Sasuke glared at him, "it's Iyashi-sensei's recipe it will make your energy come back faster."

"It's tasty!" shouted Naruto.

Kakashi nodded in agreement, "Sasuke makes lunch from now on."

"It's NOT lunch" Sasuke glared.

"But this is really good Sasuke-kun" said Sakura.

"Bring double next time" said Naruto stuffing his face.

"Don't worry Sasuke-kun I got this, shannaro" Sakura said punching Naruto on the head.

"I'm glad you guys are getting along, it seems I made a good choice in nominating you for the Chunin exams." smiled Kakashi.

Naruto choked on the food in his mouth.

"Ehh Chunin exams!" exclaimed Sakura, "b-but we only just became Genin"

"Once a Genin team has successfully completed at least 8 missions they can be nominated for the Chunin exams, I have your passes here but it's your choice whether you want to participate or not. If you do, sign this and turn up at room 301 before 4pm on Monday." he said, tossing them their passes and disappearing with an onigiri in his hand.

He later noted that the three of them hadn't even noticed that they easily defeated Iruka trying to put them through a preliminary test.

Even Sakura seemed to be fired up about the exam and kept up her practice with Tenten.

...

"Sasuke!" Sakura called, knocking on his door. Eventually it opened to a very pissed off looking Uchiha. "Good morning" she smiled.

"Why?" he replied.

"I know it's early but Naruto's here too and we have to prepare for the exam" smiled Sakura. She pointed to her left where Naruto was curled up in a ball on the floor with his sleeping hat still on.

"You couldn't wait until the sun rose?" muttered Sasuke opening his door wider to let them in. Why did they always come to his apartment anyway?

"It was Naruto's 'team leader' idea to prepare for the Chunin exam before it started, besides it's 8am the sun has risen," smiled Sakura far too brightly. "Besides, don't you usually get up earlier than this Sasuke-kun?" she asked.

Sasuke sighed, "normally yes, but I had a late shift at the hospital yesterday and I was there until almost 3am"

"Eh! Really?" Sakura exclaimed, "that's not good, we have the exam today! What were you doing up so late?"

"Let's just say the hospital was understaffed and now I know a lot more about poisons than before, in fact I even had to learn some poison related jutsus" he muttered.

In fact, he learned two new Chunin level jutsu to help against poison. Of course, he had to learn them whilst using them, along with the high pressure of a dozen ninja around him almost dying from said poison. Apparently a Chunin team had ran into an enemy and all of them got hit by the enemy's jutsu. It was amazing they even made it back to Konoha.

"Ehhhh that's so cool" said Sakura "have you started your certification exams or anything?"

"I've registered for them, but they aren't until after the Chunin exam, hopefully I will get Chunin, then it will be easier to get them to certify me" he muttered.

Naruto suddenly jolted upright and shouted "whazzat!"

Sakura punched him, "you brought us here idiot, wake up"

"I said 'sometime before the exam,' I didn't say drag us out of bed" Naruto whined and curled himself under Sasuke's kotatsu… which wasn't turned on, so it didn't really have any heat, but Naruto didn't seem to care.

They had to sign and give in their papers by 4pm. So, they had like eight hours to prepare… stupid Sakura getting him up early. Naruto spent the first two hours sleeping while Sakura and Sasuke checked their weapons and other supplies.

Sasuke spent some time cleaning his weapons and making sure they were all properly in the right holsters.

They then made breakfast and Naruto was roused by the smell.

"Ne Sasuke, make onigiri for later" chirped Naruto.

Sasuke smacked him over the head.

"Ow" Naruto whined, "why do you guys keep hitting me"

"Naruto's stupidity aside, that's a good idea, we don't know what the exams will be, we could make some food put it in a sealed tin and store it in my sealing scroll. That way we will have something to give us energy later" Sakura said logically.

Sasuke glared at both of them for a while before relenting. Sakura continued writing seals and tags to keep in her pouches while Naruto sharpened his kunai.

"I wonder what are opponents will be like," said Sakura, "I guess the exam will be hard."

"We'll be fine Sakura, just do your best" said Sasuke distractedly rolling up rice for onigiri.

"I ran into some sand village bastards yesterday, they were picking on Konohamaru, they seemed pretty strong" said Naruto, but he looked excited.

"Eh, you met them?" gasped Sakura, "what were they like."

"Kinda intense, there was this guy with a gourd that looked creepy and one of them did some creepy stuff that made me fall over, I had to throw a whole bunch of kunai at the guy to make him put Konohamaru down" Naruto pouted.

Sakura looked more worried. Sasuke walked over and poked her in the back with some chakra as he walked past, it wasn't enough to do anything but the jolt was enough of a hint and she glared at him as she relaxed a little.

"I got you these" said Sasuke, handing them each a small medical kit. It would fit easily in their ninja packs.

"YOU GOT US PRESENTS! IS THE WORLD ENDING?" Shouted Naruto loud enough to wake the dead.

Sasuke glared at him.

"All shinobi should have a standard medical kit, I'm sure Sakura has one already but I'm more worried that you don't" he said staring at Naruto.

"Why do I need medical stuff?" asked Naruto "You're the medical ninja."

"Naruto, there are hundreds of circumstances that our team could get separated in combat. Sasuke's right, we should have our own kits just in case," said Sakura.

She took out the contents and they spent some time going through it with Naruto so he understood what things were.

"What are these pill things" asked Naruto.

"They are just standard shinobi pills for Genin. There are ones for chakra exhaustion, pain relief and an antidote for most poisons" said Sasuke.

"Then why didn't Kakashi-sensei eat some when he collapsed in wave" asked Naruto, "you said that was chakra stuff, right?"

"Yes, but his chakra was depleted far beyond the standard level of chakra exhaustion, I could have given him one but we were already out of combat so it was better to let him rest and recover his chakra on his own instead of go through the after effects of taking chakra pills. There are stronger pills but I don't know how to make them yet…"

Sakura continued on, "so Naruto when you are low on chakra take one of these blue pills. ONLY one." she said.

Naruto nodded obediently and watched as Sasuke showed him how to properly bandage, in case he wasn't around, and showed him the different medical creams for inflammatory, bacterial and other infections.

By the end, he was at least happy Naruto could keep himself alive out in the field, even if it was just barely.

They left for the academy after helping Naruto sign his papers.

There already seemed to be a fight going on when they got there.

"This is the 2nd floor isn't it" muttered Sasuke.

Sakura nodded, "it's a genjutsu. Let's continue to the 3rd floor and leave these guys alone"

Sasuke nodded, it was better for them to ignore the genjutsu, the examiners were obviously trying to catch people out anyway.

"Ehhh how could you tell" Naruto exclaimed as they continued. Sakura glared at him, "seeing through genjutsu like that is academy level Naruto!" she snapped.

A blur of green flashed by them and Sasuke blocked the leg instinctively. "Get lost Lee, the exam hasn't started yet" he said glaring. Lee was still much faster than him but they'd been practicing a lot lately and he was used to the other boys moves.

"I was surprised when I heard all nine of the rookies were competing this year" said Lee drawing back with a smile. "But that just gives me a chance to beat you!"

"Oi! I'm the one who will beat you" shouted Naruto. The idiot was getting more and more spirited.

"Hah, the flames of youth won't let me lose to you" shouted Lee.

The two of them started fighting in the middle of the hallway.

Than a turtle appeared, scolding Lee for fighting, and to make matters worse, an even creepier guy came out, claiming he was Kakashi's eternal rival.

"This is Gai-Sensei" chirped Lee, the happiness was evident in his voice and Sasuke suddenly realised why Iruka had kept Gai away from him when he was in the academy.

Sure, he was fast and powerful… but also fucking weird with massive eyebrows and the same green bodysuit as Lee.

"AH! Uchiha Sasuke" shouted Gai. "I've heard so much about you from Lee, I need to properly thank you for helping my team train"

Sasuke just shook his head mutely, get this strange green thing away from him.

Tenten ran up to them too, pulling along her teammate Neji.

"Gai-sensei, don't frighten my friends" she scolded.

They'd never met Neji before but they'd heard rumours of him being a prodigy or something, all Sasuke knew was that he's Hinata's cousin.

"AH, You're the guy Lee wants to beat" shouted Naruto pointing at Neji. "I challenge you to a fight"

Gai-Sensei commented on the youthfulness of competition…

Sasuke shook his head with a sigh. Everything was so loud.

"What is it with fighting in this hallway? Wait until the exam starts if you want to fight, aren't you supposed to lead us? Stop being an idiot" growled Sakura, grabbing Naruto's ear and dragging him off.

All these strong ninjas were around them, Sasuke wondered if he could defeat them when he didn't know any offensive medical ninjutsu.

Naruto didn't seem worried though, he guessed Naruto was excited about fighting stronger guys so he could get stronger. Well, as long as they fought as a team he wouldn't need to fight, he was the medical ninja after all. He just needed to protect them…

...In the end, the only time fighting mattered to him was when it was time to murder the fuck out of his brother.

"Oh, good you're all here" smiled Kakashi, he was sat outside of Room 301.

"Kakashi-sensei what are you doing here" asked Naruto loudly.

"I came to see my proud team enter the Chunin exams," he smiled. Also, he was avoiding Gai who was now stalking the floor below looking for him. He waved at them as they walked inside.

"Have fun now kiddies" he smiled.

They entered the room and a blonde girl immediately jumped on Sasuke, he thought he recognised her from the academy, he wasn't very good at faces and he'd never bothered to learn her name back then… he had more important things to do than remember people… like study or train.

"How are you Sasuke-kun? …Hello Sakura forehead" the girl said.

"…" why was everyone being so loud today.

"Ino-pig get off of Sasuke" Sakura said.

The other rookie teams were also there.

Team 8 came over.

"Kiba, prepare to go down" Naruto shouted at the boy with a dog on his head.

' _Oh right,'_ Kiba Inuzaka, Sasuke remembered him being just as loud as Naruto and he had his ninja dog Akamaru.

Hinata was also there... Sasuke hadn't seen her lately but she smiled at him politely in greeting as she blushed and eyed Naruto… Jesus couldn't she confess already. Everyone but Naruto new she had a crush on him, and that's because Naruto was oblivious to everything except ramen.

And then their final teammate, Shino, he didn't really know much about him... but there were rumours that he was strong.

Then there was Team 10:

The blonde girl, Ino Yamanaka according to Sakura… she was another fangirl.

Then that Nara kid who was the laziest bastard you will ever see and the other guy he didn't remember the name of who was always eating.

Naruto and Sakura spoke to them all while they waited for the exam to start. Sasuke sighed and looked around, literally everyone in the room was glaring at them.

They were introduced to Kabuto… who was kind of creepy… who takes the Chunin exam seven times… either he was a really fuckin' shit ninja or there was another reason he kept failing the exam. Naruto seemed to be interested in his Ninja info cards™ though.

They looked up the sand guys Naruto met the day before, and he looked as though he was going to shout out something stupid but luckily Sakura punched him before he could. They didn't need to draw more attention to themselves.

Kabuto was already doing that by sharing info on all the other ninja villages.

The Sound ninja seemed to take particular offence for being called a minor village, ' _they do seem strong though,'_ he thought as Kabuto threw up and his ears bled from the Sound guys attack.

There was a big poof of smoke.

"I am Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the chunin selection exam's first test" said a large man with several scars across his face, he scolded the Sound ninja for fighting and dragged them all into a classroom.

Of course, it just had to be a paper test. The one thing Naruto couldn't do with his optimism.

On the bright side Hinata was sat next to Naruto and wasn't fainting from the close proximity- this was an improvement.

Ibiki stood at the front. "From this point, no questions are allowed." he began, Sakura already looked as though she wanted to argue. "The rules of this test are, first you will all start with 10 points, the test has 10 questions and each is worth one point, this test uses a subtraction system. Basically, if you answer all the questions correctly you keep your 10 points, but if you miss, say, three questions you lose three points and have seven left." he said, writing the rules on the board as he spoke.

"The second rule is, this is a team test, you need the combined scores of your teammates to pass. Finally, anyone caught cheating in this exam will have 2 points deducted for every offense. So, don't let us catch you cheating, *wink wink* catch *wink wink* cheating."

They stared at him blankly, "…the last rule is that if a team member doesn't answer any questions correctly the whole team fails. A ninja must read underneath the underneath. The exam lasts one hour. Begin." he said.

Sasuke sighed, it was pretty obvious, this wasn't a test to measure their intelligence, it was a test to measure their intel collecting skills. Cheat to win and don't get caught.

Sakura could probably answer these questions on her own… he couldn't even understand what half of them said. He waited for everyone to start writing then activated his Sharingan to copy the hand movements of someone who looked as though they were writing without hesitation.

Sakura looked as though she was easily answering the questions. Tenten and Lee were using mirrors to help each other, he couldn't see what Hinata was doing but she was probably using her bloodline limit. Even Kiba was using his dog to get answers. And Naruto… was massively sweating… well he just hoped Naruto would take the hint and find a way to cheat that didn't get him caught.

People started getting eliminated after 20 minutes or so. Naruto was still grabbing his head and not answering anything… the idiot.

Thirteen teams or more were disqualified by the time Ibiki announced the final question.

"Now before we get to it, I'd like to go over the added rules for this question. First you must decide whether you will take it or not. If you choose not to, your points will be reduced to zero. You and your team will fail. And now the other rule. If you choose to take it and answer incorrectly, you lose the right to take the Chunin exam ever again!"

There was obvious outrage, Sasuke glanced around. Everyone looked stressed out… except Shikamaru who was led back in his chair… possibly asleep.

"Now let's begin the 10th question. Those that do not wish to take it raise your hand, your number will be confirmed and you will leave." said Ibiki.

For a moment no one moved, then one guy raised his hand and suddenly everyone seemed to be leaving.

Then Naruto raised his hand and slammed it on the desk shouting 'don't underestimate me! I will not run. Even if I'm a Genin forever, I'm going to be Hokage so it doesn't matter. I am not afraid!' Obviously, he was an idiot. But a determined idiot. And his optimism was really motivating damnit.

"Well then to those remaining. I congratulate you on passing the first test." said Ibiki.

He then explained how finding intel on missions without getting caught was a matter of life and death and how the questions were there to test you on your intel collecting skills and the final question was to test your resolve as a ninja.

Sasuke was starting to get bored to be honest. It was nice when a woman named Anko smashed through the window.

"I am the examiner for the second test, Mitarashi Anko, the sexiest kunoichi in Konoha, and if Kurenai says otherwise, she's fucking lying!" she coughed, as everyone stared at her oddly "anyway, follow me to the next test! Ibiki! You left too many teams! The test was too easy."

"This time there are a lot of outstanding ones" replied Ibiki.

"Fine, whatever, I'll cut that number at least in half" she smirked.

Sasuke sighed, damn he was so fucking tired...

* * *

So, I've been editing this chapter for a few days now just trying to make it a little longer but I really can't. There just isn't a lot I can do for the first test.

But don't worry, the next chapter will be the full 2nd test and lots of new things happen. The first test is just boring because Sasuke being a medical ninja doesn't exactly change anything.

Let me know if you find any mistakes.


	7. Overcome The Forest of Death

\- the forest of death yay because I found the first test so boring even to write.

* * *

CHAPTER 7

They were led to practice area 44 for the 2nd exam. AKA. The Forest of Death

Sasuke glanced at Naruto, he seemed to be staring intently at the forest.

Anko was trying to freak them out by telling them stories about how many ninja had died in the forest during tests and training. But most people were just waiting around for the test to be explained...

"Now before we start the second test I'll pass out these agreement forms, there'll be deaths in this test so you have to sign these, so it isn't my responsibility" Anko said smiling brightly… _'she's way too bloodthirsty_ ' Sasuke thought.

"First, I'll explain the second test, then you can hand your forms in at the booth behind me." she handed out the forms quickly.

"So, the second test is survival. Each of you will start at a gate and attempt to get to the tower in the middle. During the survival you have one task, this is a no rules scroll battle." she grinned again when she said no rules, obviously that meant people dying.

"Each team will get one scroll, heaven or earth. Attempt to get the other and make it to the tower with both. There are 26 teams meaning there will be 13 of each scroll. At least half of you will fail, if not more. You have five days to get both scrolls and make it to the centre."

' _That meant 5 days of camping in a forest full of dangerous animals and even more dangerous ninja out to kill us_ ' Sasuke thought. Naruto caught his eye and winked at him, perhaps he had a plan already…

"Now, I'll tell you what will disqualify you" said Anko, still smiling brightly. "First, those that don't make it to the tower with both scrolls within the time limit. Second, those who lose a teammate or those who have a teammate killed, this is a team test and there is no quitting in the middle if you don't want to go, decide now. Finally, you must not look in the scroll until you make it to the tower. There will be a surprise for whoever does~"

"Team meeting in a minute~" Naruto whispered, then grinned at them.

"My final advice is this, don't die." said Anko. Then she left them to sign their agreement forms. They put curtains around the booth so you couldn't see which scroll each team got or who was going to hold it.

Naruto pulled them into a huddle away from the other groups so they wouldn't be spied on.

"This'll be easy! Kakashi-sensei has shown me maps of this place before in old mission reports! We can just follow the river to the tower" chirped Naruto quietly.

"But Naruto, every team will know to follow the river we'll walk into a trap" hissed Sakura.

"Not true! We don't know where we'll start so we can just find the river and set up our own traps! If everyone is headed to the tower then we should just find it and set up traps there! Besides if we do run into enemy ninja we'll just defeat them" said Naruto.

He seemed excited despite the chance of death.

"Oh, and I think Sasuke should keep hold on the scroll" he said.

"Why?" asked Sasuke, he figured Naruto would want to keep it.

"Because we're meant to protect you anyway, if you get caught then me and Sakura have failed to do our jobs" he grinned. Sasuke rolled his eyes, fair enough a medic stays out of the fight, but that's only until all the enemies try to take him out for being the damn medic… he was so dead.

They signed their forms and exchanged them for an earth scroll.

Every team went to a different gate. Then there was 30 minutes to wait until the test began.

"YOSH" shouted Naruto. "Let's charge in, see if we can find some enemies and head to the river!"

"We have thirty minutes Naruto, we should strategize more than that" Sakura huffed. "I have a lot of explosive tags with me and I know a lot of simple traps that Kakashi-sensei has been showing me but if we are by the river it will be a lot harder to trap enemy teams, we need a place that has good surroundings where the enemy can't just sneak around us"

Naruto hummed loudly. "Then wouldn't the best place be at the tower?" he said,

"Yes, but I'm sure a lot of teams will have the same idea" Sasuke sighed.

"Then we can beat them up!" chirped Naruto.

Sasuke sighed, the idiot was dead-set on charging the tower without caring about the dangers…

A voice came out of a loudspeaker, "now everyone is prepared the exam will start in 5 minutes, get ready!"

The gates opened and they ran in together.

Only a few minutes later they heard screaming.

"I guess a team got caught already" said Sasuke.

"YOSH, let's hurry together and find the river or tower" chirped Naruto again. They ran quickly hopping from branch to branch. "Wait" halted Naruto.

"An enemy team" whispered Sakura looking down from the trees, they quickly hid themselves… the team below were huddled together talking. It seemed they hadn't noticed them yet. It was a team of ninja from Konoha below them judging from the headbands, but it wasn't one of the rookie nine.

"We ambush with shadow clones, Sakura distract them" Naruto whispered. Sakura nodded then smirked… it was an evil look for her, Sasuke decided she was getting way to into being a ninja- it was making her more violent than before.

She rushed above them, making noise enough to make them look up before throwing down four shuriken with ninja tag explosives on them, the ninja below gasped in surprise before the tags blew up in their faces. One of which was a smoke screen. As the smoke cleared Naruto shouted "Kage Bunshin no jutsu" and ambushed them with at least thirty Narutos.

Sasuke sighed, the idiot could at least try to save his chakra… although he did seem to have more chakra than most… he jumped to Sakura's side as the Naruto's beat down on the enemy ninja who seemed overwhelmed by the shadow clones.

They attempted to attack with kunai but only succeeded in dispersing some of the Naruto clones without hitting the real one.

One of them tried to escape to the side by using the replacement technique and Sasuke threw a quick senbon, catching the guys sleeve. The Naruto's quickly ganged up on him.

"Now which one of them has the scroll" grinned Sakura running forward to go through their stuff.

"D-damnit" whined one of the enemies, "how were we beaten by the rookies," the Naruto's continued to beat on them as they whined.

"This isn't the end" shouted one of them who stood up and launched himself at Sakura to attack and making a hand seal. "Flower petal disperse" Sakura shouted, turning into flower petals then roundhouse kicked the guy as her petal genjutsu distracted him successfully.

"Shigure, damnit" another shouted. Sasuke sighed, the enemy team were obviously disorientated from the ambush. But if they carried on for longer they might pull themselves together again.

"Let's go guys" said Sasuke as Sakura pulled out a scroll in victory.

They ran back through the trees for a while, before the noise of their fighting brought more ninja to them.

"They had an earth scroll" sighed Sakura, "now we have two."

"What?! We should have left it with them then! We don't need two! I may have beat them up but I bet they could've kept going" Naruto whined, "let's do that again to more ninja and find a heaven one!"

"Well if they are good ninja they can find two more… Anyway, that was shockingly easy… if we hadn't ambushed them that never would have worked" Sasuke said glaring at Naruto.

"Well you should be thankful you didn't need to do anything!" shouted Naruto far too loudly, "they probably didn't expect shadow clone from Genin" he grinned.

"Well it is the one thing you are good at" Sakura said. Naruto whined but pocketed the scroll, at least now they had a scroll on two different people, so if they lost one of them it would still be okay.

Naruto stopped, he seemed lost in thought again.

"I need to whizz" he stated loudly. Sakura punched him and he fell off the branch he was on.

"Owww, Sakura I wasn't gonna whizz here! Why do you always punch me!" Naruto whined.

"If you're going off alone be careful Naruto" Sasuke said.

"Yeah, yeah" whined Naruto. There was quite a large bruise already forming on his cheek from where Sakura punched him. The girl was getting good at taijutsu he had to admit.

Naruto came back to them after a few minutes...

"I feel much better now" Naruto said… the bruise was gone, and his holster was totally on the wrong leg.

Sasuke punched the guy in the face before he could get closer to them.

"Ehhh! Sasuke what are you doing" gasped Sakura, she must not have noticed.

"You aren't Naruto" said Sasuke, "I told the idiot to be careful what did you do to him?"

Sakura seemed to notice at last and put up a defensive stance.

The enemy ninja changed back, he was wearing a yellow suit, "How unlucky you figured me out, now which one of you has the scroll!" he shouted and charged at them, throwing kunai as he went. Sasuke took out his senbon and deflected one aimed at him. Sakura dodged then brought out a kunai with an explosive tag attached, throwing it at the enemy.

The guy dodged sideways and kept coming towards them, Sasuke moved out of the way and threw a senbon aiming at his teres major muscle in his back, it was a damaging spot for most people… the guy noticed the senbon and threw some kunai at him in retaliation. His senbon hit the guys arm instead and he quickly jumped away from the kunai.

Sakura landed next to him with another tag. It looked like one of her experimental tags that she wrote herself meaning this could only end badly...

Naruto suddenly flew out of the bushes with a battle cry, he hit the enemy in the side with a kunai before getting hit away.

"Curse you" hissed the enemy, "my allies were supposed to turn up to help me, screw this" he hopped off looking pissed and his side bleeding. Sasuke grabbed the back of Naruto's shirt as he tried to follow.

"Leave it, that guy wouldn't have gone off alone if he had a scroll it's probably back with his team" he said.

"Naruto! What happened to you?" Sakura huffed.

Sasuke sighed and rubbed his eyes, this was just tiring him out more… he supposed he was going to be tired for the next 5 days straight too...

"The guy hit me when I was pissing! What was I supposed to do!" demanded Naruto.

Sakura sighed loudly, "such an idiot…

"It's a good thing we learned how to untie ropes at the academy!" chirped Naruto.

"We showed you that last week because you still didn't know how to" sniped Sakura, "let's just head off and not get separated again! We entered from the west so if we head east we should reach the tower eventually, and with luck we can get another scroll on the way."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded in agreement and they set off quickly.

A sudden explosion burst out from the trees, tearing a few of them down and blasting them in different directions as they tried to avoid the flying rocks.

A creepy looking ninja came out with an even creepier smile, ' _and this time Sakura has gone missing,_ ' Sasuke thought with an annoyed sigh.

"You here to fight" shouted Naruto challengingly.

"You want my heaven scroll, right?" said the creepy ninja "Since you have the earth scroll"

...how did he know that? Had the guy been watching them the entire time?

Then the guy swallowed the entire heaven scroll with some weird creepy tongue, "let's begin, a battle for our scrolls" the guy said staring at them seriously.

' _SHIT!_ ' Sasuke thought, the man's killing intent was so strong it caused him to see an image of death. His body was frozen, Naruto seemed frozen too. He collapsed to the ground unable to stand.

The man was walking towards them and threw a pair of kunai towards them. He activated his sharingan and willed himself to move stabbing a kunai into his leg to overpower his fear with pain and pulling Naruto away with him.

"Ah Sasuke" shouted Naruto when they got in the trees. "That guy was so creepy! I couldn't even move! That looks painful!" Naruto rambled as Sasuke pulled the kunai out his leg and began healing it.

"Why'd you stab yourself?" Naruto asked looking confused.

"Read the situation idiot" Sasuke huffed, "I had to use pain to get over the stupid fear that was stopping me from moving."

"We'll be ready next time" said Naruto sounding more serious.

"Next time will be any second now" Sasuke replied, there was no way they'd gotten away from that guy this easily. And where the hell was Sakura?

"We need to run away" said Sasuke.

"WHAT?" shouted Naruto.

A snake came at them from behind, dammit he wasn't done fixing his leg yet, he would have to deal with the pain. They jumped away quickly, throwing senbon at the snake's face but a snake that big wasn't normal.

Naruto threw a bunch of kunai and the snake went down.

Then the creepy man from before came out of the snake's head and gave them that intense look again that sent a chill down his spine, how much fucking creepier could the guy get!

The enemy started wrapping around the trees as if he was also a snake… Naruto jumped in to attack, "don't he'll kill you" Sasuke shouted.

"As if!" Naruto shouted loudly, the guy summoned another giant snake and Naruto flew towards it looking as though he was going to get eaten

"Stop" shouted Sasuke, "we'll give you the earth scroll just don't touch him."

"What?!" shouted Naruto, even from his injured state flying through the air.

"Smart to try and persuade the predator to let you go by offering another meal" hissed the creepy guy. "But I am not longer interested in the scrolls."

The snake changed targets and charged towards him instead. Sasuke stood frozen as Naruto blocked the snake, with his body standing between them… Only he didn't look like Naruto anymore.

"You could at least dodge, asshole" Naruto hissed at Sasuke. His eyes had turned red and his whisker scars were far more obvious.

Sasuke just stared, Naruto was looking like a damn demon and this creep of a snake guy was trying to eat them… his head was spinning with tiredness too, damn this test!

"R-right" he replied and activated his sharingan. "We'll fight this together Naruto" he said.

Naruto smirked at him and they turned to attack. He turned his body away from the enemy, and pulled out his senbon with chakra wire attached. The chakra wire was thin so unnoticeable. Naruto saw his plan instantly and copied him, using chakra wire with his own kunai.

Sasuke jumped and threw several senbon aiming for the most critical points with his sharingan to help. The creepy ninja looked bored and dodged his attacks, but Naruto jumped from the other side and threw his kunai more accurately than Sasuke had ever seen, his eyes were still glowing red to.

The snake asshole dodged again with a smug look, he looked as though he was playing with them. Tch.

Sasuke jumped up and pulled the chakra wire sharply, Naruto pulled too then passed his own to Sasuke as the smug looking creep gasped in surprise as he got caught up in wires.

"Tch, katon: goukakyuu no jutsu" Sasuke said sending the flame down the wires to burn the guy alive. Naruto gave a demonic smirk and ran in in order to apparently use a knock out attack.

' _It seems the only offense I can really do is simple wire tricks and breathing fire'_ Sasuke sighed.

From the clearing fire Naruto's attack was caught. The man looked burnt, but his face was peeling away to reveal another face underneath. CREEP!

"Just as I thought…" spoke the creep. "Uchiha Sasuke, I want you..."

He picked up Naruto, "So, the Nine tailed demon fox host," the guy muttered, "and when you're like this the seal is clear" Naruto struggled but the guy thrust his hand into Naruto's stomach with enough force to shoot him back over to Sasuke who caught him quickly.

"Naruto?" he said, but the blonde was out cold.

The snake man turned to look at him with his half-burnt face.

Then an explosive tag hit the guy directly in the forehead and blew up, and Sakura was there helping him pull Naruto onto his back "Get away!" Sakura shouted. "This asshole isn't normal!" She pulled them along quickly as the bastard was distracted from the force of the explosion and what looked like a lot of dust and ash that came out of the tag.

"Nice hit," Sasuke said quite breathlessly, he was exhausted. "Where were you?" he asked.

"I got swallowed by a fucking snake" Sakura spat out. She was covered in snake blood and bruises still too. In fact, her ponytail seemed to have been singed slightly "On the bright side, my experimental explosive super tag works like a charm" she said.

"Well thanks for the back up, I thought Naruto and I were going to be a snake's meal…" Sasuke muttered.

"Yeah, I saw the end of the fight, what did that asshole do to Naruto!" she exclaimed.

"I don't know and I don't want to know" said Sasuke, they ran and ran and ran until they found an old hollowed out tree, it seemed safe and was out of sight.

Sakura sat down and sighed, "I don't know if that guy followed us but we should be prepared in case he did."

Sasuke nodded and checked on their injuries. Sakura needed a lot of burn healing from her own explosive tag. She'd used it when getting out of the snake's stomach apparently, and he and Naruto had numerous injuries but thankfully nothing serious.

Naruto was the biggest worry… they didn't know when he was going to wake up. Sasuke looked at where the guy had hit his stomach, there didn't seem to be a mark but he could feel with his mystical palm that there was a lot going on in his chakra system where he had been hit and he didn't really have the knowledge to fix that kind of thing…

"You should rest" he said to Sakura, she looked as exhausted as he felt.

"No, you rest, I'll take first watch" she replied, "That explosive tag wouldn't have distracted him for long, I'm going to make some traps just in case."

"I…" damn he was tired, "are you sure?" he asked, she nodded and stood up to start setting traps in order to protect them. He leant back against the tree and closed his eyes, a light sleep wouldn't be bad as long as he woke up if there was trouble.

Unfortunately, he was more tired than he thought and only woke up when he heard a loud proclamation of "LEAF SPINNING WIND"

It was Lee…

He stood up quickly, noting that it was daytime again, Sakura must have left him to sleep through the night…

"What's up" he asked her.

Lee answered "Sasuke-kun, please allow me to defeat these ninja as they called Sakura-Chan a bad name and I must fight for her honour" he said dramatically, there was a squirrel on his shoulder and he was doing his green beast pose.

Sasuke looked at Sakura, she looked exhausted still "you're okay with this?" he asked.

"I can fight for my own honour… but Lee seems determined and I can't get him to leave" she replied. Sasuke looked at their opponents. It was the three ninja from the Hidden Sound village.

"We don't want to fight you kid, we're here to fight the Uchiha" said one of the sound nin.

"Too bad for you I'm not much of a fighter," Sasuke said with as much snark as he could muster. He was the medical nin and Naruto and Sakura were still hurt, there was no way he was going into a fight now.

"What's wrong with Naruto" asked Lee, he seemed to suddenly realise Naruto wasn't there.

"He got hit…" said Sasuke, "I tried healing him but it didn't seem to help much."

"You keep healing Naruto and I'll take care of these guys 3" said Lee winking at them.

The Sound nin looked really riled up now. Sasuke sighed, well he was more rested and his chakra had come back a bit, it was a good idea to see if he could heal Naruto more.

However, Sakura looked determined to fight along with Lee and she already looked really tired… she'd obviously been up all night watching them.

"Sakura, c'mere" he said, walking over to her, he used kekki no jutsu, channelling his chakra into her to relieve her fatigue and exhaustion. "I can't replenish your chakra but I can at least make you feel less tired" he said. Although he couldn't hold it for long, it made him more tired as it made her less tired, but he'd rested and she hadn't, plus she was about to fight so he decided it was better this way.

"Thanks, I feel better already" she said beaming.

"Oi!" shouted one of the sound ninja, "if you aren't going to start then we will" He jumped in towards them, Lee huffed and shoved his arm into the ground, pulling up the roots of a tree to block the sound ninja's attack… Show off.

"Are you sure Sakura-chan! You aren't in good condition to fight" Lee exclaimed looking back at Sakura.

"Don't worry about me Lee-kun, I- I'm going to be a strong kunoichi, and… I'm going to prove to myself that I can protect my teammates too" said Sakura.

"Stop ignoring me" shouted the sound ninja in front of them.

Sasuke sat down next to Naruto and ran his chakra along Naruto's stomach, there was something wrong with the chakra system there, he just couldn't work out what it was.

Meanwhile, Sakura and Lee tag teamed to fight the enemy.

Sakura went in to attack, using three explosive kunai just in front of the enemy, swallowing them in the explosion. Lee undid his arm bandages and ran forward. He grabbed one of them, and kicked him into the air before slamming him into the ground with a cry of 'Initial Lotus!'

The sound ninja cried out in pain as he smacked into the ground, Sasuke was sure his neck snapped but he stood up again, although grasping his head in pain, _'that other sound guy did something to the ground_ ' he noted. They'd defended despite those explosive notes... these guys were good.

"Curse you," the sound nin snapped. "That hurt… Now it's my turn to attack." he said moving towards Lee quickly, raising his arm for a punch, but rather than hitting Lee a sharp ringing sound came out.

Lee cried out and grabbed his head in pain. Sasuke tried to focus on his mystical palm technique. The chakra was all wound up in Naruto's stomach, as if it had all been pushed together or something.

The sound nin guy ran forward to attack again and Sakura did her best to hold him off, but after another strong sound attack, Lee collapsed, the damage to his ear seemed to be too much.

"Lee, you need to be healed" Sakura shouted.

Sasuke turned and Sakura's shout, Lee's ear was bleeding. The sound ninja's attack hit him really hard just now and released that high-pitched sound right next to him, it had probably broken his ear drum and heavily damaged the inner membrane.

Which meant Lee was in no position to fight either, damnit none of them were. He stood up, there was really nothing he could do for the passed-out Naruto. And Sakura's tags weren't working with that sound guy Zaku's air pipes in his hands. He kept blowing them away. Her genjutsu probably wouldn't work well either. Unless she could give them a good distraction, they would see through it too fast.

He moved forward quickly, Lee had fallen unconscious on the ground so he pulled Lee further back, activating mystical palm and checking the damage of Lee's body, he'd strained several tendons with his taijutsu, and his ear was in terrible state. He couldn't heal out in the open like this either, damn it why was it so hard just to keep his damn team alive!

"Finally, we can get to the Uchiha" laughed Zaku, he walked over only for Sakura to shove a kunai right into the guy's back

"I'm still here! Shannaro!" she shouted, and pulled out a seal for chakra suppression, attaching it to a shuriken.

"What are you going to do with those" Zaku laughed, "you try to use it on me I'll just tear it off."

"It's not you I'm aiming for" Sakura smiled, pulling out more suppressors and throwing the shuriken towards the other sound guy Dosu.

"Easy" he said stepping to the side to dodge. Sakura smiled, she'd thrown the shuriken in an arc shape and it was attached to a chakra wire which she pulled on sharply. The shuriken arced around Dosu and started tying him up in wires. Sakura quickly pulled out another as the sound ninja looked on in shock, she added suppressors along the wire and threw a few more chakra wired shuriken that twirled around his body until the guy was wound up tight in chakra suppressors.

"We're here to kill Sasuke! Not you, you brat" shouted the woman walking forward to pull the chakra suppressors off her bound teammate.

Zaku also growled and jumped forward at Sakura, knocking her to the ground and punching her in the face. She was obviously outnumbered and in trouble, Sasuke stood up to help her.

But three people jumped in his way.

"Oi, you're a medical nin right Sasuke" said Shikamaru with a bored tone. "Heal up Lee and we'll help Sakura"

"You're going to help?" asked Sasuke

"I can't let poor Sakura deal with this all by herself" smiled Ino.

"As if I need you Ino-pig!" shouted Sakura from the ground.

"Don't talk like that while looking like that" Ino snapped back. "Besides, I won't let you be the only one to look strong in front of Sasuke!"

Sakura did look beaten up quite badly, that Zaku guy had got her in the nose and it was bleeding everywhere. Her hair had come undone from its ponytail from Zaku's air attacks and there was blood in it.

"Alright, I'll rely on you and see if I can get Lee back in the fight" he said kneeling back down, if he could fix the inner membrane of Lee's ear and work on some of his strained tendons and muscles Lee would be able to join in the fight… he should also hopefully regain consciousness soon, but Sasuke didn't know how to speed that up.

He tried to focus but it was hard when all he could hear was Chouji screaming at the sound ninja for calling him fat. He listened to the conversation while he healed Lee's muscles... apparently ninja around here like to talk and describe each other's jutsu instead of just killing each other.

But that was good, it meant more time for him… although his chakra was starting to run low, fuck.

Lee opened his eyes and blinked.

"AH Sasuke-kun!" he shouted, sitting up suddenly.

"Shut up," said Sasuke, "go help them" he pointed to team Ino-Shika-Chou who didn't seem to be doing particularly well against the sound ninja.

He heard a voice from above "I can't take much more of this" said Neji, he was stood on a tree branch watching the fight, "you minor low rate ninjas picking on weaklings made a mistake" everyone turned to look up at him. The sound ninja were getting more pissed that they were getting teamed up on.

Neji pointed at Lee, "that idiot down there is our team and you're going to pay" Neji activated his byakugan and looked ready to fuck someone up.

Lee quickly jumped up to his feet, "I'm alright Neji-san! Sasuke-kun healed me" he shouted.

Tenten jumped down next to Lee and hit him sharply.

"Why didn't you turn up at the meeting place" she scolded.

"Ahhh Sakura-chan was in danger" Lee whined.

"We're just here to kill Sasuke, but these little flies keep getting between us and him" said the sound guy (Dosu) that took out Lee.

Neji jumped down and cracked his knuckles.

Ino released her jutsu that had put her in the mind of the female ninja and the girl dropped to the ground unconscious.

"We aren't afraid of you" hissed Zaku activating the air from his hands to blow them away. Neji was in front of him and hitting him hard before he could finish, stopping the chakra from coming out of his hands and possibly breaking one of his arms from the hit.

A battle cry came from behind them and Naruto suddenly sprang out in front of them, smacking the guy upside the head with sudden vigour.

"You bastard" Sasuke muttered. He woke up when the fight was almost fucking over.

"Stop," shouted the sound guy who was still ripping chakra suppression seals off himself. "We'll back off, this is too much effort. We'll kill Sasuke later" he huffed, putting a heaven scroll on the ground as a peace offering and then picking up his unconscious team mate and pulling Zaku back with him.

"Wait! Why have you been sent to kill Sasuke? Who sent you" Sakura snapped at him angrily.

He disappeared without replying.

"Well, apparently, we defeated them by annoying them enough to make them run away" commented Tenten. Lee nodded, looking energised.

"It was truly a youthful battle! But why did they insist on killing Sasuke so much" he said.

"Yeah asshole!" shouted Naruto, pointing at Sasuke, "why do you get all the fights! And why did no one wake me?! What happened to that creepy snake guy that was perving on you."

"Uhh I think my nose is broken, shannaro" whined Sakura. Sasuke glared at Naruto and ignored him, instead going over to check on Sakura.

"Aww Sakura your hair's all covered in blood" said Ino pulling it away from her face while Sasuke fixed the bone in her nose, it was fractured but not too bad, Iyashi had taught him how to heal bones and fractures, you simply used your chakra to boost calcium levels in the patient's body then used mystical palm to heal the bone using the calcium… it was slightly simpler than it sounded as long as you knew mystical palm.

"Do me a favour Ino, and cut my hair shorter" said Sakura seriously.

"W-What!?" shouted Ino, "b-but your hair..."

"It got in my face when it came undone and I have to keep pulling it back to get it out the way. It would be better for me if I didn't have to deal with it anymore, I need short hair to match my ninja image" said Sakura.

Ino looked utterly shocked but took out a kunai and started cutting Sakura's hair into a shorter but still stylish look.

"Lee-san, thank you for helping, next time I will do my best to protect you in battle as well" Sakura said sincerely. Lee just nodded with tears in his eyes.

Naruto looked between them confused, "what did fuzzy brows do that I didn't?" he demanded.

"Shut up, Naruto" Sasuke sighed, finishing with Sakura's nose which was now fixed and back to normal. He handed her a tissue to clean up the blood then went over and picked up the heaven scroll the enemy had left… now they had one heaven and two earth. They were ready to go to the tower once they were healed up.

"Neji," he said, looking over at the boy, "what scroll do you have" he asked.

Neji stared at him for a second before replying, "Heaven." Sasuke took out the earth scroll in his pack and threw it at him, Neji looked surprised but caught it.

"Ehhh! Sasuke what are you doing" shouted Naruto.

"We wouldn't have won if they hadn't intervened and we have both scrolls now anyway." Sasuke said logically.

Naruto hmmm'd loudly. Then nodded in agreement. "Fine, but if we lose our earth scroll now I blame you for giving away our back up" he huffed, but didn't actually look upset.

Ino on the other hand looked pissed, "excuse me but our team helped your team too! Where's our thank you scroll!" she huffed.

"Just leave it Ino" said Shikamaru, "they still have to get to the tower with both scrolls, we'll look elsewhere"

Lee and Tenten disappeared after Tenten hugged him and thanked him for apparently doing a good job healing Lee. Neji just gave him a nod. That he assumed was a thank you.

He looked over to Naruto freaking out over Sakura's now shorter hair. Eventually Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji also left and they found a new place to take cover.

They spent the rest of that day sleeping, eating onigiri that Sakura brought out of her sealed scrolls and then spent the night sleeping in shifts in case of enemy ninja.

Thankfully, due to Sasuke's medical ninjutsu, both Naruto and Sakura were healed and they were ready to continue the exam by the next morning. Although Sasuke was very aware of his low chakra levels. He would have to be careful from now on how much chakra he used because using mystical palm so much really drained him.

They woke up early feeling more refreshed and hopped up into the trees.

"We should still find the river" said Sakura, "I bet other teams will be heading towards the tower today as well, and the river leads straight to the tower, if we play it smart we can follow the river without getting caught."

"Yosh Sakura-chan~, as team leader I approve of your idea" Naruto chirped.

"Okay then, oh wise team leader, lead the way" muttered Sasuke.

"YOSH LET'S GO" shouted Naruto. They ran through the forest quickly, Sasuke expected to encounter more enemies, but they reached the river with incident and followed along in the trees.

Until Naruto stopped.

"What's wrong?" asked Sakura.

Naruto turned to them looking sheepish, "Ne, I'm hungry, can we stop for a snack? Or maybe some breakfast?"

"Baka" Sakura shouted, hitting him off the tree branch, "we don't have time for snacking right now!"

Naruto whined and caught himself before falling. "But Sakura-chan~ we'll fight better after food, right, right? Ne, Sasuke back me up, ninja need to eat, right?" Naruto reasoned.

"You're only saying that because you want to eat…" sighed Sasuke.

Due only to Naruto's constant complaining they ended up eating fish by the river.

That was when Kabuto showed up, his arms raised in a non-threatening greeting.

"Funny running into you guys" Kabuto said, he was smiling but as he looked over the three of them his face twitched as though he was upset about something.

"Kabuto-san" Naruto grinned widely, "so you're still in the forest too?"

"Yes, my teammates have taken refuge by the tower in order to the scroll we need" he said.

"Then why are you all the way out here" asked Sasuke.

"There's no need to be suspicious of me Sasuke-kun" Kabuto smiled, "I was just following the river, as it seems you three are as well"

"Then we can travel together!" exclaimed Sakura, "we're heading towards the tower as well"

"Yeah! We'll help you get another scroll too" said Naruto loudly.

Kabuto laughed. "Well then I assume you have your scrolls, and I suppose I would be at a disadvantage going against all three of you, so I will take you up on that offer" he said.

Sasuke glared at him carefully, he agreed so quickly it was slightly odd.

But he didn't seem to have ill intent so they travelled through the forest together carefully, they could see the top of the tower now so they moved into the forest on foot in order to avoid traps.

"We'll have to be careful from here, I'm sure many teams have set up around the tower in order to get scrolls" said Kabuto.

"They can't have traps set everywhere, we just have to find the blind spot" reasoned Sakura.

They began walking, and walking, and walking, but the tower didn't seem to be getting any closer.

"This isn't right" said Sakura, "judging from our distance we should be there by now"

"You're right" commented Kabuto, he looked around and pulled out a kunai, "I did say to look out for traps, perhaps we are already in one" he said.

"Eh? What do you mean in one?" asked Naruto.

"He means Genjutsu" Sasuke answered, "Sakura, you're best at dispelling"

"I wouldn't worry about that" said Kabuto, he pointed upwards.

Above them, a bunch of shadowy enemy clones were rising out of the trees.

"If it's a clone fight they want, I'll win easy" exclaimed Naruto, using shadow clone jutsu to make 50 clones of himself and going in to attack. "Hah these clones are easy" Naruto shouted as his fist went through them easily.

"Sasuke-kun, if this were a simple clone fight why would they attack anyway?" Sakura whispered.

"That's true" said Kabuto, "the real enemy might be hiding among them waiting to attack," they looked at the clones Naruto was defeating, they were made of some kind of liquid and kept forming back together after hit, "Naruto stop, you're just wasting your energy" Kabuto shouted.

"This is an enemy genjutsu, so if I dispel it the real ones will be revealed" said Sakura, she made a hand sign, "release" The clones faded away into nothing, but none were left behind.

"Damnit, they weren't here" said Sasuke.

"Ne I have an idea" Naruto shouted, he ran back to them and shouted, "MORE SHADOW CLONES." He then made a bunch of Naruto clones and turned four of them into copies of the others.

They took the hint immediately and used the replacement technique with Naruto's clones hiding in the trees. They then trailed the Naruto clones and fakes of them through the forest. All they had to do was wait for the enemy to reveal themselves.

"That idiot has got too much energy" Sasuke muttered watching Naruto shout loudly at anything that moved and throw kunai at bugs and animals he came across.

"Look" whispered Kabuto, pointing ahead.

Three ninja stood in front of Naruto.

"It seems our genjutsu is useless on you, but no matter, we'll defeat you now" spoke one of the enemy ninja.

They snuck around through the trees and jumped out to ambush the enemy. But the moment they jumped out the enemy turned in surprise and used a jutsu to make even more damn clones.

"This is getting boring" Sasuke growled, activating his sharingan and staring at the enemy. "They're all clones" he stated.

"Then we have to wait for the real ones again" Naruto growled, "I'll just beat them all up until they come back" he shouted and the Naruto clones jumped in again to attack.

"If it's genjutsu I can just dispel it again…" said Sakura

"No, don't," said Sasuke, "they'll just disappear and we'll never catch them" they went in to attack instead, he couldn't keep his sharingan activated for long due to his low chakra but he looked out for where the real enemy was attacking from.

They finally realised that the enemy was hiding underground when they came up and hit Kabuto across the face. For a split-second, Kabuto's glare looked as though he was going to murder the fuck out of everyone in sight.

But Naruto's flying roundhouse kick hit the enemies across the face with enough force to knock them all into a tree.

"Finally! Time to loot!" Naruto shouted, still as energetic as ever, he hopped over to the unconscious ninja.

"Naruto! Kabuto-san is the one who needs the scroll" scolded Sakura, allowing Kabuto to take the enemies scroll, it was apparently the scroll he needed because he turned to them smiling.

"Thank you for your help" he said.

They finally walked to the tower and Kabuto joined his team on the way.

"See you in the next test" said Kabuto calmly and disappeared to a different part of the tower.

It was the start of the fourth day and they were finally done with this shitty test. They walked through the doors into an empty room. There was only writing on the wall in front of them.

"Now it's time to open the scrolls" shouted Naruto, fishing them out of his pack and ripping them open enthusiastically.

"That's a summoning" Sakura gasped. The scrolls began to smoke and Iruka appeared from the centre.

"Hey" he said, "long time no see, congratulations on passing the 2nd test" he started - only to get jump hugged by Naruto.

"I was surprised you guys managed to finish before the final day, I thought you would have more trouble" he said sincerely,

"We did but we had help from the other rookie teams" said Sakura. If Ino and Lee's team hadn't helped, who knew what would have happened.

"Most teams take longer because they have to take time healing and recovering, but I guess you guys had Sasuke to speed that up" commented Iruka.

Naruto was walking around in the background chanting "We did it, we did it, we did it."

"Now, don't push yourselves in the final test. You have to wait around until the time limit is up so take your time to rest now…" Iruka said. "The only other thing I have to relay to you is the meaning of that writing on the wall behind me," said Iruka pointing at the writing on the wall. "It is the Hokage's principal for Chunin"

"Heaven means head and Earth means the body, only with both the head, knowledge, and the body, strength, can even dangerous missions become safe. But you guys seem on your way to achieving both already" Iruka smiled. "A Chunin is a commander class, the duty to lead a team, never forget the Chunin principal as you go on"

"Roger" shouted Naruto.

"Just don't push yourselves for the next exam, with luck you will get a long time before the third test starts." Iruka was obviously worried about them. But seemed to relent because they had done well.

"I honestly think we'll be fine as long as that creepy snake fucker hasn't passed" said Sasuke, because if they saw him again it was not going to be fun…

"C-creepy snake… what?" said Iruka he looked beyond startled.

"There was some creepy guy summoning snakes, I think he was perving over Sasuke too." said Naruto, receiving a glare from both Sasuke and Sakura.

"R-right" said Iruka before poofing away without another word.

"I guess we should get some rest?" said Sakura tentatively.

* * *

I might edit this chapter several times until I'm happy with it.


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